As the Syrian conflict intensifies, thousands of people are fleeing
every day for neighbouring Jordan. The Guardian publishes an article
"Life in a Syrian refugee camp: 'You have to walk over an hour to get
bread", describing the life of the camp through the experience of its
dwellers.
"The Za'atari border camp is now home to almost 90,000 people, a small
city of tents, queues and bulldozers scraping up new land for new
arrivals. When it rains, the camp becomes a hellish quagmire; when it
doesn't, it turns back into dusty, unforgiving desert," the
newspaper writes.
"Every day, we wake up at dawn on the call for prayers. The first
problem we face is getting water, especially when it is still dark. We
have to search for the nearest water tanks to get a supply to wash. We
have to take two-gallon containers, walk for some distance in harsh
weather conditions and queue for water – the whole thing takes over
half an hour. Anything we want to get here requires queuing," the
Guardian quotes 18-year old refugee Raneen. "Imagine, six people with
a mattress each in a small place – a room packed with clothes, food
items, boxes, etc. You can't compare life here to that back in Syria.
There, we had everything available at home – water, electricity, gas
and so on. Here we have a tent in a camp with one hour of electricity
in 10 hours. It's like comparing the sky and the earth."
