9 Feb 2013

SYRIA / HUMANITARIAN CRISIS

Five thousand Syrians are now fleeing to neighbouring countries each day, according to the UN refugee agency UNHCR. UN agencies grasp every opportunity, when security allows it, to help Syrians in need. UNHCR / FILE

Posted at: February 9, 2013 12:51 am

Duration: 04:52

Available in: SD

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Full script

STORY: SYRIA / HUMANITARIAN CRISIS
TRT: 4.52
SOURCE: UNHCR / OCHA / WFP
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / ARABIC / NATS

DATELINE: FILE

SHOTLIST:

FILE - OCHA - JANUARY 2013, SYRIA

1. Tracking shot, convoy on Syrian border
2. Tracking shot, along road past military tank
3. Pan right, building destroyed with bullet impacts on the wall
4. Close up, lock on door
5. Various shots, inside a building

FILE - UNHCR - 24-25 JANUARY 2013, ZAATARI CAMP, JORDAN

6. Wide shot, Zaatari Camp in the sunset

FILE - UNHCR - 20 JANUARY 2013, ZAATARI CAMP, JORDAN

7. Med shot, child in warm clothes drinking juice
8. Wide shot, newly arrived family with their belongings
9. Wide shot, woman waiting seated near a fence

FILE - UNHCR - 2012, ZAATARI CAMP, JORDAN

10. Zoom in, crying woman

FILE - UNHCR - 21-22 MARCH 2012, LEBANON

11. Med shot, mother and father with their three daughters

FILE - UNHCR - 24-25 JANUARY 2013, ZAATARI CAMP, JORDAN

12. Wide shot, man walking down the road with other refugees
13. Med shot, woman
14. Tilt up, children sitting on their family's belongings
15. Med shot, Fatima sitting with her children and their belongings
16. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Fatima, Syrian refugee:
"We all want to go back once to our homeland. It was not our choice to leave with all our children and flee across."
17. Wide shot, refugees and their belongings
18. Pan right, mounting of tents
19. Wide shot, man carrying blankets and other refugees walking
20. Med shot, refugees behind a fence looking through
21. Close up, registration sign on a caravan
22. Med shot, refugee going through the registration process with UNHCR official
23. Med shot, UNHCR official talking with a family
24. Various shots, refugees getting off a bus with the help of a IOM official
25. SOUNDBITE (English) Marin Din Kajdomcaj, UNHCR Senior Field Coordinator of the Za'atri camp:
"We are working on the operation 24 hours a day."

FILE - UNHCR - 20 JANUARY 2013, ZAATARI CAMP, JORDAN

26. Various shots, children and women walking to the camera
27. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Fatima, Syrian refugee:
"Last week our tent was flooded with water. We lost all our belongings even the cups we drink from. Where can we go. We have nowhere to go."
28. Med shot, in front of the school
29. Wide shot, Fatima walking in the school premises
30. Pan right, Saudi caravans

FILE - UNHCR - JANUARY 2013, IRAQ

31. Med shot, refugee men behind a fence in a camp in northern Iraq
32. Med shot, refugees going through a door in a camp in northern Iraq
33. Tracking shots, Domiz camp
34. Med shot, refugee woman walking under the rain in Domiz camp

FILE - UNHCR - 12 DECEMBER 2012, ISLAHIYE CAMP, TURKEY

35. Wide shot, Islahiye camp with tents
36. Various shots, Turkish Red Cresent tents
37. Various shots, man adjusting a tent

FILE - UNHCR - DECEMBER 2012, TURKEY

38. Med shot, child sitting near a tent  across the Turkish border

FILE - WFP - 2012, LEBANON

39. Wide shot, refugees inside a store
40. Close up, WFP voucher
41. Med shot, refugee in front of the cashier in the store

FILE - UNHCR - 21-22 MARCH 2012, LEBANON

42. Med shot, family
43. Close up, woman
44. Close up, young girl

FILE - OCHA - JANUARY 2013, SYRIA

45. Tracking shot, damaged buildings with bullet impacts
46. Med shot, burnt car in front a wall with bullet impacts
47. Wide shot, family walking in the street
48. Tracking shot, street with burnt buildings

FILE - WFP - 2012, SYRIA

49. Tracking shot, UN convoy
50. Tilt up, woman with her child and some supplies
51. Tracking shot, Red Crescent car traveling in the streets
52. Wide shot, children playing outside

FILE - UNHCR - 24-25 JANUARY 2013, ZAATARI CAMP, JORDAN

53. Wide shot, young girl sitting on a pile of blankets while adults are carrying their belongings
54. Med shot, young boy between two tents
55. Close up, children behind a fence

FILE - UNHCR - 10 AUGUST 2012, ZAATARI CAMP, JORDAN

56. Various shots, young girl washing dishes

FILE - UNHCR - 15 SEPTEMBER 2012, KAHRANMARAS, TURKEY

57. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Emirah, Syrian refugee girl:
"I want to go back to my school but it has been destroyed."

FILE - UNHCR - 26-27 JANUARY 2013, ZAATARI CAMP, JORDAN

58. Various shots, refugees on bus arriving at night
59. Med shot, a refugee family in the night

FILE - OCHA - JANUARY 2013, ZATAARI CAMP, JORDAN

60. Various shots, refugees having a phone call with family members
61. SOUNDUP (Arabic) Two unidentified female Syrian refugees:
"Yes. Hello. How are you? How is your health? Thank God. [The kids] send their regards. How is your mother? Send my regards to the girls."
62. Various shots, refugees having a phone call with family members

FILE - UNHCR - 25-26 JANUARY 2013, ZAATARI CAMP, JORDAN

63. Med shot, refugee woman in a wheelchair
64. Med shot, man helping an amputee to walk with his cane
65. Med shot, woman waiting with her belongings

STORYLINE:

Syrians are fleeing their country by the thousands, every day.

Their recent past a trauma, their present a struggle, their future unclear.

Young and old, mostly women and children, arrive in neighbouring countries in search of refuge from the raging conflict inside Syria.

Reluctant travelers like Fatima who fled to Jordan with her seven children.

SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Fatima, Syrian refugee:
"We all want to go back once to our homeland. It was not our choice to leave with all our children and flee across."

Close to 800,000 people are now either registered as refugees or awaiting registration in neighbouring countries (787,000 as of 8 February, with 5000 additional refugees arriving per day, according to UNHCR).
 
In Jordan, the government, UN agencies and their partners race to keep up.

Zaatari camp is overflowing and expansion is underway.

SOUNDBITE (English) Marin Din Kajdomcaj, UNHCR Senior Field Coordinator of the Za'atri camp:
"We are working on the operation 24 hours a day."

Fatima came with her 14 children and 60 grandchildren. Bad weather made things even harder.

SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Fatima, Syrian Refugee in Jordan:
"Last week our tent was flooded with water. We lost all our belongings even the cups we drink from. Where can we go. We have nowhere to go."

She found refuge in the nearby Bahraini – UNICEF school.

Others fled to these Saudi Arabian caravans.

In Northern Iraq scores of arrivals, challenging conditions. In Domiz camp, the greatest needs are for warmth, winter clothes and medicines.

In Turkey, the government continues to assist and shelter the refugees. But its camps are full, with thousands more in need across the border.

In Lebanon, urban refugees receive Word Food Programme (WFP) food vouchers to buy food from local shops. The refugees move in with families or live in communal shelter, but space is not always easy to find.

And in Syria itself, the situation can only be described as dire. Destruction and displacement cripples the people. Here Syrians are looking after each other. No has been left untouched by this tragedy.

UN agencies grasp every opportunity, when security allows it, to help the Syrians in need.

Over half the number of Syrian refugees are children. It has been called  'the children's crisis'. Children who have witnessed too much, who now know trauma, whose lives have been abruptly and forever changed.

SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Emirah, Syrian refugee girl:
"I want to go back to my school but it has been destroyed."

Families torn apart, who knows for how long.

Across the borders, even voices bring small comforts.

SOUNDUP (Arabic) Two unidentified female Syrian refugees:
"Yes. Hello. How are you? How is your health? Thank God. [The kids] send their regards. How is your mother? Send my regards to the girls."

The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) has warned that the number of refugees could rise to more than one million in the coming months, with millions more displaced inside Syria.

It urges the world not to ignore this human tragedy - of a people who never imagined that this would be their fate.