Austrians in Syria – “If they recognize foreigners, you are lost!”

The ‘Caravan of Humanity’ initiative has been involved in crisis areas for years. This time, the team led by project manager Rainer B. went to the Kurdish-controlled area in Syria. But during the mission, events took a turn for the worse. Suddenly, the four-man team witnessed the end of the Assad clan’s fifty-year reign of terror. Rainer B. describes his impressions, the current situation and the escape to “safe” Iraq to “Krone”.

Awakened by gunshots
“We started in the Kurdish area and then went to Raqqa. “The city used to be an IS base,” reports Rainer B. Raqqa, the former stronghold of the so-called Islamic State, is now under the control of the Northeast Syrian Autonomous Government.

“Krone” reaches helpers in Iraq
The situation is tense: “The population is mixed, but the Islamist ideology is still present.” Saturday morning there was a sudden shooting. “Assad has fallen,” the cell phone reported. “Then it became clear to me that these were shots of joy. This took several hours. “People were cheering,” B. remembers when we reached him via WhatsApp in a safe house in Iraq.

“IS ideology is still deeply rooted”
But the mood quickly changed. A crowd began marching through the streets, rioting and destroying everything in their path. “It was pure aggression, accompanied by shouts and slogans,” he describes. His local companions urgently warned him: “You are not safe here. If they realize you are foreigners, you are lost.”

Hoods were put up
A woman on the team hurriedly put on a hood to hide her exposed hair. “Stay in the car, don’t look anyone in the eye,” they advised, as the attacks came closer. B. and his team had to watch as the situation got out of hand. “The Islamist ideology was still deeply rooted, that was clear here,” he adds.

It quickly became clear: “We must leave Raqqa immediately.” The team planned their escape together with their companions. “Go east, it’s safer there,” advised a local contact, a high-ranking representative of the autonomous government. Eventually they found refuge in the east, in areas with a larger Kurdish population. “All minorities are respected in the Kurdish region,” B. explains. It is one of the few places in Syria where people of different ethnicities and religions can live in safety. But the region is characterized by poverty. “The people there are dirt poor, but no one is excluded.”

“Refugee camps appeared before our eyes”
During their journey, the team encountered an endless stream of refugees. “Between 150,000 and 200,000 people are fleeing the Islamic militias in the Aleppo area,” said B. The refugees are arriving in places like Tabqa, where his team distributed relief supplies: “Blankets, sleeping bags, tents, hygiene products – everything you need you had to survive.” The nights are cold, the temperature drops to five degrees. “People are camping everywhere: along the road, in open fields. Fires burn close together. A new refugee camp was created before our eyes,” says B. about the current situation. Given the overwhelming need, the aid deliveries from his convoy are a drop in the ocean.

Complicated aid routes via Iraq
Transporting aid through the Middle East is also a logistical challenge. “The only way to Syria is through Iraq. It takes months of negotiations with the authorities in different countries,” B. explains. But they always find open arms in the northeast of the Syrian autonomous administration. “We get all kinds of support there.” Yet political tensions, even between Kurdish areas, make the work more difficult. “Northern Iraq is working with Turkey, while the Kurds in Syria are at war with Turkey,” B. describes the complex network. Many fear that this last bastion between the camps could now be destroyed.

The ‘Caravan of Humanity’ now wants to quickly collect donations again to help the local population.