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ISIS took control of large areas in Syria, including Deir ez-Zor province, this control continued in 2017, and at the end of this year, the province witnessed a violent attack by the Syrian regime, supported by Russian air force and Iranian militias, and this attack resulted in the flight of the people of Deir ez-Zor province to areas that are safer and not under the control of the Syrian regime.

Most of the people headed to the north of Syria in the areas controlled by the Syrian opposition, but the people had to pass through the SDF-controlled areas in Hasakah and Raqqa provinces in order to be able to reach northern Aleppo and Idlib.

This trip was full of difficulties and I lived this experience myself, we had to cross the Euphrates River and cross from the west bank of the river to the east bank, the crossing was done at night for fear of targeting the Russian aircraft, which bombed many of the fugitives on the side of the river, and the means of crossing was a primitive ship made because of the destruction of bridges by the international coalition forces and Russia.

In order to complete the journey, you have to hire a smuggler to guide you to the road that reaches the SDF-controlled areas, and usually this person asks for large sums of money, and the reason for the high demand of smugglers.

To prevent ISIS from leaving and traveling from its areas of control, and the escape route is difficult and not without risks, on our way we were targeted by an ISIS element in the Ruwaished area between Deir ez-Zor province and Hasakah, and the tire of the car exploded and we were able to replace the tire quickly before this person reached us.

Upon reaching the international road M4, known locally as the Kharafi road, SDF elements began to appear and a search process began, and the first action they took was to take personal papers from documents under the pretext of revealing names, but they remained with them, then they gathered people in a place known as Abu Fez gathering. This place lacks the necessities of life, as there is no place to sleep except the cold desert, a little water, no food, and the numbers of people are large and increasing every day, with the SDF elements exploiting the needs of the people. They ask some families for sums exceeding $ 3,000 to get them out of this gathering and give them promises of a better place, and in most cases families are lied to and their money is taken.

The next day, those present in the Abu Fez gathering were allowed to move in a huge convoy accompanied by members of the SDF, so that the people would be distributed to camps that resemble concentration camps, as these camps are distributed in the city of Al-Shadadi south of Hasakah, Mabrouka in Ras Al-Ain and Ain Eissa in Al-Raqqa.

We arrived in the evening to the outskirts of Al-Sadd camp in the village of Ajaja in the city of Al-Shadadi, and it was a sad scene, watching people spread the ground without cover and living moments of fear and horror when they saw patrols from the SDF arresting young people for no reason to interrogate them in the hope of obtaining some confessions.

The next morning we were allowed to enter the camp without giving you a tent or anything to protect you from the desert heat, we entered the tent of a relative and we were twenty people in this tent to start another journey of suffering and looking for a way out of this detention camp, life was very difficult, especially with the racism against the displaced by the camp administration and the SDF.

Smugglers have been active and ask for large sums to get people out of the camp, or you have to wait for a long time, sometimes exceeding three months, or pay some camp brokers to allow you to leave in a regular way, the brokers ask for $ 500 for each family while giving up your identification papers

After staying in the camp for a month, I wanted to get out, so we paid $ 500 to be the way we got out regularly, and we left Hasaka towards the city of Manbij accompanied by SDF forces, the displaced person was required to pay for this trip, the trip takes several hours, we arrived in the countryside of Manbij at dawn, and then you have to head to the area between the presence of the SDF forces and the Free Syrian Army to have finished a large part of your escape trip, which cost many people their lives and money and lost their lives. old and start a new life full of poverty and need.

The article was edited by Irfan al-Salamah, a professor of Islamic history at the University of Aleppo in the liberated areas

Forced migration from Deir Ezzor to Azaz 18/10/2017