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Arriving at Zaatari refugee camp

With more than 120,000 people, Zaatari is the biggest camp for Syrian refugees fleeing civil war.

A young boy sits against a gate in the reception area waiting to be registered as a refugee at Za(***)atari refugee camp.
By Gregory Beals
Published On 29 Nov 2013

More than 113,000 people have perished since fighting began in Syria two and a half years ago, including 11,420 children. As the death toll continues to mount, an increasing number of Syrians have fled their homes, seeking refuge in neighbouring countries.

Gregory Beals, a writer who has been following the narratives of survivors of conflict for the past three years for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), recorded the moment when refugees first arrive at the Za’atari camp in Jordan and the stories of loss they bring with them.

“I pay close attention to the faces of children,” Beals wrote. “Sometimes I see relief. Most often, I see faces that are painted with a feeling of confusion. Families rest on cots or on mats on the concrete floor before they are registered, provided a tent, blankets, plastic sheeting, cooking utensils and food.

“But the reception center is more than a rest area. It is a memory machine, nurtured by the daily arrival of innocents and their families. They come exhausted from the days of travel, the passage through indescribable violence and the flight across a border. And when they spend their first night having passed the periphery of conflict, Syrian refugees finally have the luxury to begin to safely remember what has happened.”

Samar, six, and Bushra, eight, escaped from Homs with their parents and two-year-old brother.
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Eleven-year-old Ali (left) and Yamin, ten, made the passage from Homs with their family. "We left Homs because there is no bread, no food, no electricity," their mother Bushra said. "We escaped and used the trees for cover from snipers."
Hajer, three months old, arrived from the village of Inkhil in Dara(***)a.
Five-year-old Sabrine fled from rural Damascus where there were rockets and mortar fire.
Five-year-old Ali arrived on November 17 from rural Damascus. At first light, his mother dressed him in his best clothing before registering as a refugee.
This family from rural Damascus came to Jordan via the eastern deserts. They said they left after their neighborhood was subjected to 24-hour shelling.
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Most refugees arrive at the camp at around 3 am. A little girl cries after her mother tells her to put on a coat which has a broken zipper.
Mohammed arrived from Homs. He sits on a bag of winter clothing, the only belongings his family has.
Foza is a year and two months old and comes from the village of Karm al-Zaytoon near Homs. Her 32-year-old father says he wishes his daughter was never born for all that she has endured. "We had hoped things would get better," he says. "They only go worse."
Five-year-old Zahir arrived from Homs last night. It took the family two days to arrive. They paid approximately $1,000 to smugglers to take the family of four to safety.
Fatima, five, left her home when the war began and had been travelling from village to village ever since. "If we had family where we stayed that was good," her mother Eida said. "If not then we would sleep in the fields."
Eight-year-old Orub weeps silently in the morning hours. The family village in Bab Sbaa was engulfed in fighting and so they fled.