START
00:00:09
This camp in the desert is the last place on earth Mariam thought she would ever find herself. But two weeks ago, she felt she had no choice but to escape to this border camp in Jordan.
00:00:23
Q Mariam Umm Nezal: They killed one of my sons. I fled here with my two remaining sons.
00:00:30
Mariam's son, Nezal, 21, was killed in June by Assad-troops.
00:00:36
Q Mariam Umm Nezal: It was the first day of Ramadan. He went to the mosque. He did not have his ID card with him. They arrested him. He was tortured and his throat was cut.
00:00:51
The death certificate of her 21-year-old son is one of the few things Mariam was able to take with her.
00:00:58
Now Mariam, her two sons and a brother occupy a single tent in Jordan’s largest refugee camp, Camp Zaatari.
00:01:05
Q Mariam Umm Nezal: We couldn’t bring anything. We arrived empty handed. We left our house and land behind. We had to save our lives.
00:01:20
Miriam is one of the more than seventy thousand Syrians in this camp. And each tent has its own war story.
00:01:30
Q Mariam Umm Nezal: I think about my murdered son every day. I can’t forget him. My heart is broken.
00:01:49
The number of tents here is rising constantly. Every day hundreds of new residents arrive from over the border.
00:01:58
(Soundup) Madam this is your home.
00:02:07
(soundup) Do I live here? Yes.
00:02:14
The war in Syria is ever-present here. Ibrahim, a soldier who deserted from Assad’s army, explains what happened to him.
00:02:24
Q Ibrahim deserted soldier: I was arrested in Damascus by the secret police. They took me to a building, with only a number. It was number 227. There they tortured me for a long time. Even if you had not done anything wrong. They always thought of something.
00:02:42
Ibrahim's parents paid a lot of money to his captors. After 9 months they were able to buy their son out of prison. The neighbors filmed as the army came to Ibrahim’s home and blew it up in retaliation.
00:02:56
(Soundup) God is great.
00:03:02
In the camp Ibrahim was united with his parents. His months in captivity still haunt him.
00:03:10
(Soundup) Look what they did to me. These are burns from electrodes and cigarette butts. This happened during the interrogation. Look. This is boiling water.
00:03:36
Q Ibrahim: Every day, they tortured people. If it wasn’t me it was a neighbor or someone in my town. Everyone had it coming. People died daily. At least 25 people in my cell died.
00:03:49
Ibrahim is literally scarred for life by his experience.
00:03:53
Q Ibrahim, deserted soldier: It was also mentally tough. You constantly thought about death. It could happen now, in five or ten minutes.
00:04:09
This refugee camp resembles a large open-air market. Everything is for sale here.
00:04:19(Soundup)
For a small fee, Syrians can buy materials for their own stall. Some sell candy, others starts a hair salon.
A few kilometers outside the camp, the devastating war continues. Meanwhile this camp is bustling with activity.
00:04:42
(Soundup) Shall we buy bananas?
00:04:46
Refugees like Mariam can buy some groceries here with coupons or with what little money they have.
00:04:52
(Soundup) At home I was always busy. I worked the land and sowed. There was always something to do. Here, I'm killing time. I'm bored.
00:05:06
Only those who have enough money, or who have family living in Jordan, can leave the camp. Every day even more refugees arrive, overflowing this already packed makeshift-city of 70,000 Syrians.
00:05:20
Q Mariam Umm Nezal: Nobody helps us. We want to be freed from this misery. Enough deaths. Something must be done. How much longer do we have to wait? We are powerless. We can’t do anything against the regime.
00:05:46
Q Abu Rami, brother Mariam. You can’t imagine how tragic the situation is. Nobody can tolerate it. It's degrading. Even animals are treated better. Tanks occupy the streets and you constantly hear aircraft. There are explosions everywhere. We were constantly bombed with rockets and cannons. We had no life.
00:06:12
Mariam and her brother may be stuck in Jordan, but in their minds they are still in Syria.
Nowhere can you see that involvement in Syria better than here at the highest point of the camp. This is the only place where Syrians can use the Syrian network with their cellphones. For most, this is the only lifeline with their relatives back at home.
00:06:35
Q Unidentified man: I asked my parents how life was. They complain about the bombing, the war and the high prices. Life is hard there.
00:06:51
Night falls in the refugee camp. In a few hours hundreds of new Syrians will begin the illegal and dangerous journey across the border.
Tomorrow they will become the newest residents in this ever-expanding habitation.
00:07:09
Another monotonous day has ended for Mariam and her two sons. Far away from home Mohammed mourns his murdered brother.
00:07:19
Q Qasem Muhammad, son Mariam: I am filled with sorrow. Sometimes I think I see him. That hurts. I thank God he died as a martyr.
00:07:38
Q Mariam Umm Nezal: Every family has lost a loved one. Even if we go back, it will never be as before. The sadness will remain. Everyone has a brother or a son. In Syria, everybody mourns.
00:08:15
As well as flooding refugee camps, victims of the Syrian war are also overwhelming small hospitals just across the border in Jordan.
In an improvised emergency room in Mafraq Hospital, Dr. Rabia tries to save the life of yet another new Syrian patient.
00:08:30 (soundup, Dr. Rabia)
He has lost blood.
00:08:36
The boy, Ali, 15, has been seriously injured in a grenade attack.
00:08:42 (soundup Ali) I'm tired, I can’t go on anymore.
00:08:47
It has taken hours for Ali to reach this hospital just across the border in Jordan. He has lost three liters of blood.
00:08:58 (soundup) Sir, is it bad? Is it bad?
-You? No.
00:09:06 Dr. Rabia Afahn, general surgeon El Mafraq Hospital:
This is our fifth, no, sixth victim today.
00:09:12
This small hospital near the Syrian border suddenly finds itself confronted with a bloody war. Increasingly badly wounded Syrians are being brought here. But without any outside help, this local facility can’t deal with so many victims.
00:09:31 (soundup Ali) Just let the blood run, please anesthestize me. I want to sleep.
-You’ll be okay
00:09:38
Dr. Rabia tries to reassure the boy, but the doctor is concerned.
Ali must soon undergo surgery to stop the internal bleeding. But the hospital does not have a vascular surgeon to carry out the operation.
00:09:52 Dr. Rabia Afanh - general surgeon El Mafraq Hospital:
We give first aid, we try to stop the bleeding and we give blood. Then we send him to a hospital with a vascular surgeon in Amman.
00:10:02
And there is another problem. The hospital has no ambulance available to transport the teenager all the way to the capital.
00:10:09 Dr. Rabia: We are strained and our options are limited. We need help from other countries. We need more doctors and money.
00:10:26
If there is no ambulance to transport him, Ali will almost certainly die.
00:10:32
With just three fellow doctors, Dr. Rabia has to care for all Syrians arriving this evening. He is the only general surgeon on duty.
00:10:39 Dr. Rabia: I've already worked 18 hours and still have 18 hours to go.
00:10:45 For taking in the Syrian victims ...
(soundup)
00:10:49 Mafraq Hospital does not get any extra support. Not from Jordan nor from abroad.
00:10:52 Dr. Rabia: I wasn’t prepared for this. It used to be much quieter here. Now the operating room is always occupied. We don’t have enough rooms.
00:11:07
There is still no ambulance to take Ali to another hospital.
He is brought to the intensive care unit.
00:11:16 Who shot you?
-It was a hand grenade.
Were you one of the fighters?
-No, we were randomly attacked?
00:11:28
Most patients are patched up and sent to another hospital. Some have to stay much longer. Like Achmed, 21. He will have to stay for weeks, and may never fully recover.
00:11:40 Achmed: My hands and back hurt. They beat me up and tortured me.
00:11:49
Achmed, who is afraid to show his face, is terribly mauled.
00:11:53 Unidentified man: This man has been here since yesterday and his shirt sticking to his skin.
00:11:58 Achmed: I was in the Syrian army and they accused me of planning to defect. So they arrested me. Soon they started torturing me.
00:12:13 Unidentified man: They broke his fingers and burned him with cigarettes. His thumb is also broken. They broke his foot with a hammer and stabbed it with a knife. They also used electrodes.
00:12:31
Ahmed says he was tortured for 4 months. Two days ago, soldiers of the Free Syrian Army freed him and brought him to this hospital in Jordan.
00:12:41 Achmed: I thank the doctors in this hospital.
00:12:49
Ahmed's story is difficult to verify. But human rights groups say tens of thousands of Syrians are being tortured in the same way.
00:12:59
In the bed opposite Ahmed, we find Mohammed, a soldier with the Free Syrian Army.
00:13:05 Mohammed: We had an exercise. Then there was a rocket attack. I was hit, my bones are shattered, and the blood vessels in my left leg are ripped open.
00:13:21
It is stories like Mohammed’s that explains why the beds of this small hospital are constantly occupied.
00:13:28 Mohammed: The regime does not care about the people. There are few casualties amongst Free Syrian Army soldiers, I'm the exception. Most victims are innocent children, women and elderly.
00: 13:42
Again, two badly wounded Syrians arrive by ambulance, the seventh and eighth this evening.
00:13:50 (soundup) Careful, careful.
00:13:53
The youngest victim is 12 years old. He has shrapnel in his stomach.
00:13:56 (soundup) Mahmoud, can you call Dr. Rabia at extension 140?
00:14:00 Dr. Rabia: How can one not be sad for what’s happening in Syria? We are all brothers. It’s a very difficult situation and incredibly painful. People are brought here and die. Many are dying.
00:14:18 Dr. Rabia: I'm here to see what the boys need. I saw them when they arrived at the emergency room. I’m here to see what they need.
00:14:33
Yet again, an ambulance arrives. This time with a patient from Mafraq itself. This understaffed hospital still needs to care for the locals.
00:14:41 Dr. Rabia: I work with a lack of everything. I am the only surgeon here and look how many wounded we need to treat. I do surgery, visit the emergency room, the CCU, ICU and in the morning I have my practice.
00:15:00 (soundup) Where is he?
00:15:03
A few months ago Rabia Afahn was just a local doctor in Jordan. The war across the border has suddenly made him a full-time war medic.
00:15:14 (soundup) This is shrapnel.
00:15:15
The constant trauma hasn’t left this 36-year-old doctor indifferent.
00:15:21 Dr. Rabia: They are both12 years old. They are still children.
00:15:31
For 15 year old Ali, some good news. A private clinic has made an exception and lent an ambulance to bring him to Amman for a life-saving operation.
00:15:48
This patient might be saved. But the next ambulance with new victims of the Syrian war is not far behind.
DURATION 16:16
00:00:09
This camp in the desert is the last place on earth Mariam thought she would ever find herself. But two weeks ago, she felt she had no choice but to escape to this border camp in Jordan.
00:00:23
Q Mariam Umm Nezal: They killed one of my sons. I fled here with my two remaining sons.
00:00:30
Mariam's son, Nezal, 21, was killed in June by Assad-troops.
00:00:36
Q Mariam Umm Nezal: It was the first day of Ramadan. He went to the mosque. He did not have his ID card with him. They arrested him. He was tortured and his throat was cut.
00:00:51
The death certificate of her 21-year-old son is one of the few things Mariam was able to take with her.
00:00:58
Now Mariam, her two sons and a brother occupy a single tent in Jordan’s largest refugee camp, Camp Zaatari.
00:01:05
Q Mariam Umm Nezal: We couldn’t bring anything. We arrived empty handed. We left our house and land behind. We had to save our lives.
00:01:20
Miriam is one of the more than seventy thousand Syrians in this camp. And each tent has its own war story.
00:01:30
Q Mariam Umm Nezal: I think about my murdered son every day. I can’t forget him. My heart is broken.
00:01:49
The number of tents here is rising constantly. Every day hundreds of new residents arrive from over the border.
00:01:58
(Soundup) Madam this is your home.
00:02:07
(soundup) Do I live here? Yes.
00:02:14
The war in Syria is ever-present here. Ibrahim, a soldier who deserted from Assad’s army, explains what happened to him.
00:02:24
Q Ibrahim deserted soldier: I was arrested in Damascus by the secret police. They took me to a building, with only a number. It was number 227. There they tortured me for a long time. Even if you had not done anything wrong. They always thought of something.
00:02:42
Ibrahim's parents paid a lot of money to his captors. After 9 months they were able to buy their son out of prison. The neighbors filmed as the army came to Ibrahim’s home and blew it up in retaliation.
00:02:56
(Soundup) God is great.
00:03:02
In the camp Ibrahim was united with his parents. His months in captivity still haunt him.
00:03:10
(Soundup) Look what they did to me. These are burns from electrodes and cigarette butts. This happened during the interrogation. Look. This is boiling water.
00:03:36
Q Ibrahim: Every day, they tortured people. If it wasn’t me it was a neighbor or someone in my town. Everyone had it coming. People died daily. At least 25 people in my cell died.
00:03:49
Ibrahim is literally scarred for life by his experience.
00:03:53
Q Ibrahim, deserted soldier: It was also mentally tough. You constantly thought about death. It could happen now, in five or ten minutes.
00:04:09
This refugee camp resembles a large open-air market. Everything is for sale here.
00:04:19(Soundup)
For a small fee, Syrians can buy materials for their own stall. Some sell candy, others starts a hair salon.
A few kilometers outside the camp, the devastating war continues. Meanwhile this camp is bustling with activity.
00:04:42
(Soundup) Shall we buy bananas?
00:04:46
Refugees like Mariam can buy some groceries here with coupons or with what little money they have.
00:04:52
(Soundup) At home I was always busy. I worked the land and sowed. There was always something to do. Here, I'm killing time. I'm bored.
00:05:06
Only those who have enough money, or who have family living in Jordan, can leave the camp. Every day even more refugees arrive, overflowing this already packed makeshift-city of 70,000 Syrians.
00:05:20
Q Mariam Umm Nezal: Nobody helps us. We want to be freed from this misery. Enough deaths. Something must be done. How much longer do we have to wait? We are powerless. We can’t do anything against the regime.
00:05:46
Q Abu Rami, brother Mariam. You can’t imagine how tragic the situation is. Nobody can tolerate it. It's degrading. Even animals are treated better. Tanks occupy the streets and you constantly hear aircraft. There are explosions everywhere. We were constantly bombed with rockets and cannons. We had no life.
00:06:12
Mariam and her brother may be stuck in Jordan, but in their minds they are still in Syria.
Nowhere can you see that involvement in Syria better than here at the highest point of the camp. This is the only place where Syrians can use the Syrian network with their cellphones. For most, this is the only lifeline with their relatives back at home.
00:06:35
Q Unidentified man: I asked my parents how life was. They complain about the bombing, the war and the high prices. Life is hard there.
00:06:51
Night falls in the refugee camp. In a few hours hundreds of new Syrians will begin the illegal and dangerous journey across the border.
Tomorrow they will become the newest residents in this ever-expanding habitation.
00:07:09
Another monotonous day has ended for Mariam and her two sons. Far away from home Mohammed mourns his murdered brother.
00:07:19
Q Qasem Muhammad, son Mariam: I am filled with sorrow. Sometimes I think I see him. That hurts. I thank God he died as a martyr.
00:07:38
Q Mariam Umm Nezal: Every family has lost a loved one. Even if we go back, it will never be as before. The sadness will remain. Everyone has a brother or a son. In Syria, everybody mourns.
00:08:15
As well as flooding refugee camps, victims of the Syrian war are also overwhelming small hospitals just across the border in Jordan.
In an improvised emergency room in Mafraq Hospital, Dr. Rabia tries to save the life of yet another new Syrian patient.
00:08:30 (soundup, Dr. Rabia)
He has lost blood.
00:08:36
The boy, Ali, 15, has been seriously injured in a grenade attack.
00:08:42 (soundup Ali) I'm tired, I can’t go on anymore.
00:08:47
It has taken hours for Ali to reach this hospital just across the border in Jordan. He has lost three liters of blood.
00:08:58 (soundup) Sir, is it bad? Is it bad?
-You? No.
00:09:06 Dr. Rabia Afahn, general surgeon El Mafraq Hospital:
This is our fifth, no, sixth victim today.
00:09:12
This small hospital near the Syrian border suddenly finds itself confronted with a bloody war. Increasingly badly wounded Syrians are being brought here. But without any outside help, this local facility can’t deal with so many victims.
00:09:31 (soundup Ali) Just let the blood run, please anesthestize me. I want to sleep.
-You’ll be okay
00:09:38
Dr. Rabia tries to reassure the boy, but the doctor is concerned.
Ali must soon undergo surgery to stop the internal bleeding. But the hospital does not have a vascular surgeon to carry out the operation.
00:09:52 Dr. Rabia Afanh - general surgeon El Mafraq Hospital:
We give first aid, we try to stop the bleeding and we give blood. Then we send him to a hospital with a vascular surgeon in Amman.
00:10:02
And there is another problem. The hospital has no ambulance available to transport the teenager all the way to the capital.
00:10:09 Dr. Rabia: We are strained and our options are limited. We need help from other countries. We need more doctors and money.
00:10:26
If there is no ambulance to transport him, Ali will almost certainly die.
00:10:32
With just three fellow doctors, Dr. Rabia has to care for all Syrians arriving this evening. He is the only general surgeon on duty.
00:10:39 Dr. Rabia: I've already worked 18 hours and still have 18 hours to go.
00:10:45 For taking in the Syrian victims ...
(soundup)
00:10:49 Mafraq Hospital does not get any extra support. Not from Jordan nor from abroad.
00:10:52 Dr. Rabia: I wasn’t prepared for this. It used to be much quieter here. Now the operating room is always occupied. We don’t have enough rooms.
00:11:07
There is still no ambulance to take Ali to another hospital.
He is brought to the intensive care unit.
00:11:16 Who shot you?
-It was a hand grenade.
Were you one of the fighters?
-No, we were randomly attacked?
00:11:28
Most patients are patched up and sent to another hospital. Some have to stay much longer. Like Achmed, 21. He will have to stay for weeks, and may never fully recover.
00:11:40 Achmed: My hands and back hurt. They beat me up and tortured me.
00:11:49
Achmed, who is afraid to show his face, is terribly mauled.
00:11:53 Unidentified man: This man has been here since yesterday and his shirt sticking to his skin.
00:11:58 Achmed: I was in the Syrian army and they accused me of planning to defect. So they arrested me. Soon they started torturing me.
00:12:13 Unidentified man: They broke his fingers and burned him with cigarettes. His thumb is also broken. They broke his foot with a hammer and stabbed it with a knife. They also used electrodes.
00:12:31
Ahmed says he was tortured for 4 months. Two days ago, soldiers of the Free Syrian Army freed him and brought him to this hospital in Jordan.
00:12:41 Achmed: I thank the doctors in this hospital.
00:12:49
Ahmed's story is difficult to verify. But human rights groups say tens of thousands of Syrians are being tortured in the same way.
00:12:59
In the bed opposite Ahmed, we find Mohammed, a soldier with the Free Syrian Army.
00:13:05 Mohammed: We had an exercise. Then there was a rocket attack. I was hit, my bones are shattered, and the blood vessels in my left leg are ripped open.
00:13:21
It is stories like Mohammed’s that explains why the beds of this small hospital are constantly occupied.
00:13:28 Mohammed: The regime does not care about the people. There are few casualties amongst Free Syrian Army soldiers, I'm the exception. Most victims are innocent children, women and elderly.
00: 13:42
Again, two badly wounded Syrians arrive by ambulance, the seventh and eighth this evening.
00:13:50 (soundup) Careful, careful.
00:13:53
The youngest victim is 12 years old. He has shrapnel in his stomach.
00:13:56 (soundup) Mahmoud, can you call Dr. Rabia at extension 140?
00:14:00 Dr. Rabia: How can one not be sad for what’s happening in Syria? We are all brothers. It’s a very difficult situation and incredibly painful. People are brought here and die. Many are dying.
00:14:18 Dr. Rabia: I'm here to see what the boys need. I saw them when they arrived at the emergency room. I’m here to see what they need.
00:14:33
Yet again, an ambulance arrives. This time with a patient from Mafraq itself. This understaffed hospital still needs to care for the locals.
00:14:41 Dr. Rabia: I work with a lack of everything. I am the only surgeon here and look how many wounded we need to treat. I do surgery, visit the emergency room, the CCU, ICU and in the morning I have my practice.
00:15:00 (soundup) Where is he?
00:15:03
A few months ago Rabia Afahn was just a local doctor in Jordan. The war across the border has suddenly made him a full-time war medic.
00:15:14 (soundup) This is shrapnel.
00:15:15
The constant trauma hasn’t left this 36-year-old doctor indifferent.
00:15:21 Dr. Rabia: They are both12 years old. They are still children.
00:15:31
For 15 year old Ali, some good news. A private clinic has made an exception and lent an ambulance to bring him to Amman for a life-saving operation.
00:15:48
This patient might be saved. But the next ambulance with new victims of the Syrian war is not far behind.
DURATION 16:16