Story

Beyond the Camps: Images of the Syrian Exodus

September 25, 2013 | The New York Review of Books
By
Alisa Roth and Hugh Eakin

This tent is part of a squatter community in Amman, Jordan. The family who lives in it ‘borrows’ electricity from a factory next door. Image by Alisa Roth. Jordan, 2013.

Partly because of high-profile visitors like John Kerry and Jon Stewart, camps like Zaatari, in northern Jordan, have received a lot of attention in the media. But only a quarter of the more than two million Syrian refugees live in camps. Image by Alisa Roth. Jordan, 2013.

Fuaz Ruhayyad, a butcher from Homs, came to Mafraq, Jordan with his family, after his brother and other relatives were killed for being Sunni. Image by Alisa Roth. Jordan, 2013.

Although Ruhayyad and his family refurbished this abandoned house themselves, they still have to pay rent, and for water and electricity. It’s illegal for them to work in Jordan. Ruhayyad says they live off “the grace of God.” Image by Alisa Roth. Jordan, 2013.

The children in Ruhayyad's family only go to school occasionally, even though they all went to school in Syria. Syrians are allowed to attend Jordanian schools, but two-thirds don’t, according to the UN. Even so, many Jordanian schools have had to add second shifts to accommodate all the new students. Image by Alisa Roth. Jordan, 2013.

These children in Gaziantep, Turkey go to a special school, staffed by Syrian teachers, many of whom work as volunteers. Syrian students are allowed to attend Turkish schools, but because of the language barrier and other concerns, very few do. There are over 400,000 Syrians in Turkey. Image by Alisa Roth. Turkey, 2013.

School has become a luxury many Syrian families simply can’t afford. This boy, who lives with his family in Beirut, doesn’t go to school anymore because the fees are too expensive. His 14-year-old brother, who went to school in Syria, now supports the family by working in a bakery. Image by Alisa Roth. Lebanon, 2013.

Although they are not Palestinian, they moved to Shatila, an over-crowded Palestinian refugee camp in south Beirut because it was the only place they could afford. His mother says the locals make them feel unwelcome. Image by Alisa Roth. Lebanon, 2013.

Even among populations where there are close ethnic bonds there can be little support for refugees. In the expensive Kurdish region of Iraq, Syrian Kurds have been officially welcomed as "brothers," but some 70,000 live in primitive tents at Domiz camp, exposed to extreme desert temperatures. Image by Hugh Eakin. Iraq, 2013.

Especially in expensive cities like Beirut and Amman, refugees take shelter where they can. A Damascus widower and his young daughter hung this mirror in their apartment in an abandoned building across from the UN office in Beirut. He joked that they don’t need a refrigerator in the winter because the apartment is so cold they can just leave the food out. Image by Alisa Roth. Lebanon, 2013.

Many Syrians in Lebanon, which has no camps, have relied on the generosity of local villagers. This Syrian girl's family occupies a dirt-floor house in the Beqaa Valley belonging to Lebanese neighbors. Image by Hugh Eakin. Lebanon, 2013.

Even though many Syrians in Gaziantep’s ‘Little Aleppo’ are middle-class — their ranks include at least 60 physicians — many sleep in parks or at mosques. The Syrian owner of this restaurant, which has become a resource center for the displaced, installed a washing machine and shower in the bathroom. Image by Alisa Roth. Turkey, 2013.

In sheer numbers alone, the scale of Syria’s humanitarian crisis is difficult to grasp: a third of the country’s 22.5 million people have abandoned their homes; 10 percent have fled the country, including more than one million children. As we describe in our article in The New York Review of Books, however, the crisis has also been hard to understand because the Syrians who have fled are dispersed in hundreds of villages, towns, and cities across the region. These photographs, taken during our reporting for the story, show some of the many different situations we encountered among Syrian refugees in Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon, and Iraq.