Al-Raml (Latakia) Refugee Camp

Al-Raml Palestinian refugee camp lies on the sandy and rocky shore of the city of Latakia. It is the largest population cluster of Palestinians on the Syrian coast. Although the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) never gave the camp the official status of a Palestinian refugee camp, it decided to provide education and healthcare services to the camp’s residents.

Because its houses are directly on the beach, al-Raml Camp has become a destination for hosting cultural and artistic activity. For example, the Syrian film al-Yazirli (based on the novel by Hanna Mina and directed by Iraqi filmmaker Qais al-Zubaidi) was filmed on its beach in 1974.

The camp was somewhat affected by the war that ravaged Syria in its early stages. However, it suffered much more from the earthquake that struck areas in northern Syria on 6 February 2023.

Establishment and Demographics of the Camp

The camp has been known by several names; some have to do with Palestine, such as Hayy al-Quds (the Jerusalem Quarter) or Mukhayyam al-A’ideen (The Returnees’ Camp); other names, such as Mukhayyam al-Raml (Sandy Camp) or Hayy al-Raml al-Jnoubi (Southern Sandy Quarter) reflect the topography of its location. The camp is located about three kilometers from the center of Latakia, and according to sources in the General Authority for Palestinian Arab Refugees in Syria (GAPAR), its establishment dates back to 1952. It was built on a plot of land acquired by GAPAR, whose size was estimated at around ​​22,000 square meters. For decades, al-Raml Camp remained within these geographical bounds, but like other Palestinian refugee camps established in Syria, it expanded beyond its original borders, especially in the direction of Hayy al-Gharaf and the Shalayhat Jnoubiyye (Southern Chalets region).

The residents of al-Raml Camp mainly originate from coastal Palestinian cities such as Haifa, Jaffa, and Acre, whose families fled by ship from their cities in Palestine first to Beirut, and then from there to Latakia. Some hail from the villages Ijzim, Jabaʿ, al-Sarafand, Atlit, Tirat Haifa, Ayn Ghazal, al-Tantura, al-Zib, and Tarshiha. It is believed that the camp was initially inhabited by ten Palestinian families that had come from Haifa. After the June 1967 war, a number of Palestinians, mainly from the Gaza Strip, sought refuge there; most of them already had relatives in Latakia, while others were volunteers in the Palestine Liberation Army (the Ain Jalut Force) who got married to women from the camp and settled there. Palestinians who were living in other Syrian cities like Damascus, Aleppo, and Dar‘aa also gradually started flocking to the camp.  As of the end of 2010, the population of al-Raml Camp was estimated at 6,728 refugees, according to statistics compiled by the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Refugee Affairs Department. However, UNRWA states that before the start of the conflict in 2011, the camp was home to less than 11,000 Palestine refugees.

Infrastructure

Because UNRWA does not officially recognize al-Raml as a Palestinian refugee camp, Syrian government institutions have collaborated with GAPAR to provide essential facilities to the camp’s residents such as water, electricity, and sewage disposal as well as managing them and repairing them when necessary. However, these facilities have remained poor and under significant strain; the humid climate in the camp area necessitates frequent maintenance of infrastructure, which is not always possible because of Syria's strained budget.

Development of Housing and Roads

When Palestinian refugees first arrived in the Syrian coastal city of Latakia, each of them arranged their own housing, depending on their financial circumstances. Some rented houses in the city, while others stayed in mosques or in the agricultural institute in an area called Buqa, a small village that is part of the Latakia municipality. The camp was established on nearby uninhabited sandbanks in the early 1950s. Upon its establishment, UNRWA provided financial assistance to refugee families to help them construct their own houses on a plot of land. All the houses were made up of two rooms: one that functioned as a bedroom-cum-living room, and the other for the various facilities, with the size of the house varying based on the size of the family. This was the state of housing in the camp until the late 1970s, when houses became more sophisticated; some began to have small gardens in front where fruits and vegetables were grown and had their own water wells, while other houses expanded vertically.

When refugees first came to al-Raml, the roads were not paved. It was only in 1970 that the main street—the only street that runs through the entire camp—was paved. It was named after Walid Ahmad Zamel (who entered the West Bank with a Fatah group and was killed with his comrades on 7 December 1967, in a battle with the Israeli army). This street connects the camp to the rest of Latakia and has eucalyptus trees planted on the sidewalk on both sides, which were already growing in the camp’s alleyways along with platanus trees. The neighborhoods of the camp were given the names of the cities and villages in Palestine from which its residents originated.

Water

Al-Raml Camp received running water in 1970 through public taps distributed over the areas of the camp. However, the camp suffers from a chronic water shortage, particularly in the summer. The water supply in the camp is also impacted by the state of electricity; when the power is interrupted, water cannot be piped into homes, especially to the higher floors of houses. This has forced the camp residents to install large water tanks on the ground floor at the entrance to their residential buildings.

Sewage disposal

One of the biggest problems faced by the camp residents is sewage disposal. It is exacerbated in the winter because the camp is located in a low-lying area, which creates major clogging at the mouths of drainpipes. In addition, sewer lines have become worn out with the passage of time, and some of the manholes do not have covers. This has caused the spread of diseases and foul odors through the camp and created a hazard for passersby, who risk falling into them by accident.

The sewage water from the city of Latakia in general, and al-Raml Camp specifically, is disposed of through drains that release it into the Mediterranean Sea. This has led to pollution of the beach and the seawater near it, a problem which causes the air to become polluted and disease to spread.

Electricity

Al-Raml Camp was connected to the electrical grid in 1959, and like other regions of Syria, the camp experiences constant disruptions in the supply of electricity, exacerbated by the major damages inflicted on the electrical grid as a result of the fires that broke out in Latakia and its surrounding countryside in mid-2023. The theft of electricity through many illegal connections have also led to an overload on the grid, exceeding the capacity that the transmission cables can bear. This has caused frequent breakdowns in the power supply, leaving the camp without electricity for days on end.

Socioeconomic Conditions

Employment

In the first few years following the Nakba, the Palestinian refugees who came to al-Raml Camp benefited from the experience they had working in the ports of the coastal cities in Palestine that they came from. Many worked in the port of Latakia and in the fishing industry, and some even chaired the Union of Maritime Fishermen on the Syrian Coast on more than one occasion. Some worked in various informal jobs and in the service industry. After the passing of Law No. 260 of 1956, which granted Palestinian refugees in Syria the same labor rights as Syrian workers, refugees in the camp began to get employed in government institutions and in public sector facilities.

Health Care

Health conditions in al-Raml Camp are generally poor primarily for reasons related to sewage disposal and the dilapidated state of its houses (a consequence of high humidity).

Despite its status as an unofficial camp, UNRWA decided to pay for the costs of garbage disposal in the camp in 2015, which has helped to improve the environmental health. UNRWA has also collaborated with the Latakia municipality to repair the street lighting in the camp, which has helped to avert many traffic accidents.

Education

A number of schools inside al-Raml Camp and its immediate vicinity are operational; , some, such as the Martyr Yusuf Naddaf Secondary School and al-Raml al-Janoubi Modern Primary School, are affiliated with the Syrian Ministry of Education. In addition, UNRWA runs four primary and junior-high schools: Jaba‘ Boys Elementary School, Atilit Girls Elementary School, al-Khairiyya School, and Majd al-Kroum School. Since the 1970s, the camp residents have made secondary and university education a main focus. Like other Palestinian refugee camps in Syria, al-Raml’s residents are fairly well-educated, although their level of education may be slightly lower than other camps like al-Nayrab in Aleppo, for instance, where educational and cultural activity began at an early stage of the camp’s growth.

Relations with Surrounding Areas

Family ties in al-Raml have remained tightly knit, due to its small size and population when compared with other camps. These close relationships have often alleviated some social and even economic burdens on the camp residents. The camp is located in al-Raml al-Jnoubi, a relatively large area with a predominantly working-class character, similar to the three other areas the camp is adjacent to—the vegetable market, Hayy al-Gharraf, and al-Shalayhat al-Jnoubiyye. The camp residents have forged close ties with the Syrians living in these areas, when it comes to education, doing business with each other, and marrying into each other’s families. These ties have been reinforced by the fact that a number of Syrians have taken up residence inside the camp as tenants or as homeowners.

Palestinian Political Movements and NGOs inside the Camp

Several Palestinian factions operate in al-Raml, but their activity is less than it is in other Palestinian camps in Syria. In the past, the group A’idoun (We Will Return), which works among Palestinian refugees in Syria and Lebanon, was active in the camp, but in the last few years it has not been visible. Some nongovernmental organizations operate inside the camp. The Institut Européen de Coopération et de Développement, which has expertise in vocational training, microfinancing for small enterprises, and providing education and healthcare, is active, as are the Mosaic Middle East for Relief and Humanitarian Development and the United Nations Development Programme. The Syria Trust for Development had worked in the camp but is now defunct.

Recent Tragedies

Al-Raml Camp has endured its fair share of various kinds of disasters. The camp was impacted by the war that ravaged Syria in its early stages, leading to the displacement of thousands of its residents. After the Syrian army regained control of the area, some of the residents returned to their homes, while others left the country entirely, 2 000 accordingly to UNRWA.

On 6 February 2023, a severe earthquake struck the northern regions of Syria as well areas in Turkey, causing extensive damage to millions of people, including the residents of al-Raml; a number of residents were killed and some buildings collapsed or suffered major structural damage. The camp residents sought refuge in mosques, government schools, and UNRWA schools. Due to the dire economic situation, many of these residents have been unable to repair their homes, and some have not been able to afford to rent alternative housing inside or outside the camp. UNRWA has appealed to donor countries to urgently provide $2.6 million to cover the needs of the approximately 56,000 Palestinian refugees who have been severely affected by the earthquake, which include a large number of residents of the camp.