According to the Migrants Bureau under the Tabqa Civil Council, there are 125.000 migrants in Tabqa city center (23.000 families) and 250.000 more in villages (50.000 families).

Most of the migrants are from Aleppo’s Meskenê region, Dêir ez-Zor and Raqqa, while some others are from Azaz, Jarablus and Bab.

Because no international organization has provided aid up to date, most migrants stay in half-ruined homes. The Tabqa Civil Council wants to create solutions to the problem and open a migrant camp but the biggest issue is the sheer number of migrants.

Due to the recently increased wave of migration, there is no space left in the buildings in the city, even the schools and ruined buildings are full.

A migrant boy named Xilud Şibilî from Dêir ez-Zor stays with his family in the Ibn Sina school in the Buheyra neighborhood. Xilud said the following on what they experienced on the road: “Me and my family got out of ISIS hell. We experienced a lot of hardship on the way here. We walked through the desert to come to Tabqa. We had to pay 400.000 Syrian Liras to smugglers to escape the gangs.”

Another big issue for the migrant children is medicine and medical services in general. Migrant girl named Cabir Hezai from Dêrazor has a serious condition, but she can’t access medicine. Cabir’s father said: “My daughter has a heart condition, she needs treatment and surgery. But no aid organization has given us a hand yet.”

Due to their economic conditions, migrant children are forced to work to support their families. This keeps them out of school.

Edî came from Meskenê, and summarized the hardship the whole family endured as: “I have to work and take care of my family. I learned to write my own name in the school we use as a home.”

Yasir Hac Elî, a Raqqan migrant who is staying in the Yarmoûk school, said they can’t access medicine and his son Abdullah is sick, but he doesn’t have the means to treat him.