Despite revival in smuggling, Rukban’s markets go quiet
A shop in Rukban on Thursday. Photo by Omar a-Shawi for Syria Direct.
AMMAN: The rows of canvas-ceilinged mud stalls that make up the Rukban settlement’s central market wer...
Homs
UN-registered Syrian refugees in Jordan return home for visits, unexpectedly lose refugee status: ‘If we had known, we wouldn’t have visited’
A downtown Amman market in 2018. Photo by Khalil Mazraawi/AFP.
AMMAN: Just outside Damascus’ Old City in what was once the sprawling working-class suburb of Jobar, Abdel Rahman* had a home and a family.
But it’s been eight years since he last saw that house—eight years in which frontlines between the Syrian army and rebel groups formed nearby, and his home neighborhood was alm...
‘Those who must go, must go’: As the years drag on in Rukban camp, pregnant women face strapped medical services or a risky return home
Rukban women enter UN-run clinic in Jordan in March 2017. Photo by Khalil Mazraawi/AFP.
AMMAN: Bishayr is terrified of giving birth. Originally from rural Homs, the 19-...
Despite talk of returns, displaced Syrians in Rukban remain ‘caught in the middle’ of closed borders and geopolitics
Pocket after pocket of opposition-held territory has fallen to the Syrian government and its allies over the past year in a grim cycle: sieges and bombardments turn to negotiation...
Photo essay: Displaced Syrians in Rukban camp build an education system from scratch
Rukban teacher Maher gives a math lesson in September. Photo by Omar a-Shawi for Syria Direct.
“Six times four equals 24; eight times three equals 24; 24 times one eq...
Sudden closure of UN-run medical clinic leaves tens of thousands in Rukban camp without vital care
Rukban camp in March. Photo courtesy of Rukban Camp Civil Council.
AMMAN: A UN-run medical clinic serving tens of thousands of displaced Syrians in a remote camp on the Syrian-Jo...
What’s next for the millions of internally displaced Syrians? A month-long reporting series from Syria Direct
Rebel fighters and their families arrive in rural northern Aleppo in April. Nazeer al-Khatib/AFP.
After seven years of war, one image in particular has become a potent symb...
Families of Syria’s disappeared scramble for answers as government quietly closes thousands of detention files
A mural on rubble in Daraya memorializes people forcibly disappeared in 2016. Photo courtesy of Majd el-Maaddamani.
AMMAN: Abdulrahman al-Dabaas’ brother, Islam, was wearin...
A ‘children’s tragedy’: Hepatitis, diarrhea infect thousands of children stranded in Rukban amid summer heat
A Rukban toddler with “moderate” diarrhea symptoms on Monday, according to one nurse in the camp. Photo courtesy of Ruba Homsi.
AMMAN: Thousands of children in a remo...
‘There must be a future to look toward’: Syria Direct graduates 11th cohort of trainee journalists
Syria Direct graduated its 11th class of young, aspiring Syrian journalists on Sunday after they completed a three-month course in researching and producing in-depth, objective re...
Syrian refugees in Lebanon mull fears of detention back home as hundreds cross into government territory
AMMAN: Hundreds of refugees living in northeastern Lebanon packed up their belongings and crossed into government-held eastern Syria on Thursday, in the second organized return co...
