Amman: The UAE government is set to open a fully equipped Syrian refugee camp in Jordan to accommodate a mass exodus of civilians fleeing an escalating civil war at home.
Majid Sultan Mohammad Bani Suleiman, Commander of the UAE Rescue Mission in Jordan, spoke to Gulf News on Tuesday at the UAE-Jordan Red Crescent Field Hospital in the hamlet of Mafraq – approximately 20km from the Syrian border.
“The preparations to open the Rabaeh Al Sarhan camp, about 20km away from Mafraq, are currently underway and will be open soon,” he said. “We don’t have a specific date yet but it will be a modern facility catering to displaced Syrian families - made up of caravans with playgrounds, a hospital and much more.”
The UAE Rescue Mission has been in Jordan for more than a month now, responding to an increasingly severe Syrian humanitarian crisis.
“This is one of the worst situations I have ever seen, it is extremely hard for the Syrian families,” he said. “They have nothing, no food, water, beds, blankets, nothing and now the cold winter is coming, so it is our duty to secure what they need.”
Under Suleiman’s command the UAE Rescue Mission in Jordan runs a two branch operation, one medical – comprised of one field hospital and two mobile hospitals. The second, a rescue team, travels to the Syrian border and around Jordan visiting clusters of the 200,000 refugees currently in Jordan, transporting the injured to the field hospital and handing out food, water and basic amenities.
The mobile rescue mission helps more than 150 refugees daily, said Suleiman. The field hospital treats up to 600 patients a day – a total of 10,000 women, children and elderly civilians since it opened.
Equipped with 80 doctors and nurses and 40 administrators the hospital has conducted more than 45 surgeries so far.
“So far we’ve done 46 surgeries from gun shots, to fractures, burns and amputations,” said Dr Adel Al Shamry, CEO of field hospital who is also a heart surgeon. “The worst case I’ve seen so far is a seven year-old girl who lost both her legs in a bomb blast – we are now trying to get her artificial legs.”
Another case Dr Shamry sighted was a middle aged man who, while crossing the Syria-Jordan border was shot in his lower back and is now paralysed.
“What we are seeing here [at the hospital] is completely unimaginable – children and babies losing limbs, children with no eyes because of bomb blasts and adults missing legs, hands…you name it,” he said. “The suffering of these children will be etched in our memories…but we also provide psychotherapy for the children to help them try and recover from the trauma they’ve seen.”
