Syrians trickle out of Rukban desert camp with memories they want to forget


Lizzie Porter
  • English
  • Arabic

Apart from palm saplings in tin cans and the olive shoots in the garden of his mud-brick dwelling, there is very little Hajj Khaled wants to take with him from the isolated Rukban camp in Syria's eastern desert to go home with his family to Palmyra.

“There are two things very precious to us in Palmyra – palm trees and olives. We want to take them back with us, and plant them,” the 56-year-old father of three told The National.

Since the overthrow of the Assad regime last month, Mr Khaled has been desperate to make the 250km journey north-west to the Syrian desert oasis city, which was under the control of regime forces and their Russian and Iranian allies.

While his problem is raising the cost of transport, for others in Rukban it is that they have nowhere to go after their homes were destroyed during the civil war that began in 2011 when president Bashar Al Assad's forces brutally cracked down on anti-government protests.

Mr Khaled and his family are among the thousands of Syrians who have been trapped in the camp for about a decade after fleeing Palmyra when the extremist militant group ISIS seized the city in 2015. The hardships they have faced represent the panoply of humanitarian crises that have gripped Syria over more than 13 years of civil war.

Mr Khaled once worked as a chef at upmarket hotels in Palmyra, whose Unesco world heritage site of pre-Islamic ruins attracted tourists from around the world. In Rukban, he found work here and there as a butcher and a cook, but he cannot afford the hundreds of dollars it would cost to rent a lorry to carry his family and their belongings back home.

“We can't pay $200, $300, or $500 to go to Palmyra. If we had the money, we wouldn't have waited until now,” Mr Khaled told The National at his simple but tidy home. Inside are a basic stove, thin sheets covering the floor and a small wall mirror with a grass-green frame.

“If a car comes today or tomorrow, I'll take my belongings and leave. You saw my house, I don't have many belongings. I'm ready to pack and leave as soon as I receive help. We remain hopeful.”

Grim, dusty life

Rukban is extremely remote, accessible only via rocky, sandy tracks along Syria’s border with Jordan. Between the squat homes, which replaced the tents where people lived when they first arrived, children play in the sand and mud. There are no paved roads and electricity comes from generators and battery packs. There is one simple medical clinic, staffed by nurses but no fully qualified doctors. Residents wage a constant battle against the dust.

According to residents and human rights observers, the camp was essentially besieged by the Assad regime and its allies, who set up checkpoints and limited the supply of food and other essentials, causing prices to soar on its rough high street.

People were allowed to leave in special cases, such as for medical treatment, but only after going through security screenings and being forced to paying regime authorities between $400 and $7,000 – far beyond the reach of most people, residents told The National.

Conditions got so bad that tens of thousands opted to go through so-called “reconciliation” procedures with the Assad regime and move to territory under its control, despite documented cases of arrests and forced disappearances among the returnees. Last year, the camp was home to about 8,000 people, Amnesty International reported.

“Those who stayed were either revolutionary activists or former rebel fighters,” said Hammoud Aboura, an owner of a grocery store in the camp who also runs a local news webpage. “That was why the regime besieged us, to force the people, the rebels and their families to return to areas under its control.”

Residents were happy to be leaving Rukban camp, where many had been living for more than a decade. Matt Kynaston for The National.
Residents were happy to be leaving Rukban camp, where many had been living for more than a decade. Matt Kynaston for The National.

Conditions continued to deteriorate as the years passed. At least three babies died in the camp last year, including at least one from malnutrition, Amnesty International reported. The organisation also reported Jordanian authorities deporting Syrians to the camp.

About 16km away from Rukban lies the Al Tanf military garrison, home to a contingent of US military forces and Syrian partner fighters focused on combating ISIS cells in the desert.

Rukban residents say they never had any fallings out with the Americans at Al Tanf, but they could have done more to help people in the camp, which lies within an area under de facto control of the garrison.

“We lived with them [the Americans] as friends, but they didn’t provide to us the things we needed,” said Mohammed Abdullah Kashaam, 60, who was among those preparing to leave Rukban. He was gathering his belongings to return to what remained of his wheat farm in Palmyra.

Life in Rukban has been notoriously harsh. The Assad regime besieged the camp between 2015 and the regime's fall in December 2024. Matt Kynaston for The National.
Life in Rukban has been notoriously harsh. The Assad regime besieged the camp between 2015 and the regime's fall in December 2024. Matt Kynaston for The National.

The US forces have also faced criticism from rights groups over not doing more to help people trapped in Rukban. The US military base “has provided sporadic assistance to the camp’s residents, including a bread oven, flour and fuel, as well as medical care in exceptionally rare situations, according to the camp’s residents, but has not ensured regular assistance to address critical needs”, Amnesty International said last year.

Long journey home

In a clearing in the camp, three families have piled mattresses, metal containers and other belongings on to the back of a lorry for the long drive back across the desert to Palmyra.

Ibrahim Kashaam, the lorry's owner and driver, told The National he had driven for two days through the desert from the city of Raqqa to carry relatives from his extended family to Palmyra.

“The house is destroyed. We just need a bit of time and we will repair it,” said Mr Kashaam, who is originally from Palmyra but fled to Raqqa during the war. “The diesel from Raqqa costs six million Syrian pounds ($460), I am doing this from my own pocket,” he added.

Despite the destroyed homes they will be returning to in Palmyra, Syrians in Rukban want to focus on their futures rather than dwell on memories of the past decade in the camp – painful recollections that they often did not want to talk about.

A local voluntary council is providing basic services such as water and electricity for returnees to Palmyra, although the city remains a ghost town. Around 7,000 members of the pre-2011 population of 100,000 people have returned since ISIS's departure in 2017, according to local officials.

Residents pile mattresses, metal containers and other belongings onto the back of a lorry for the long drive back across the desert to Palmyra. Matt Kynaston for The National.
Residents pile mattresses, metal containers and other belongings onto the back of a lorry for the long drive back across the desert to Palmyra. Matt Kynaston for The National.

Among them is Ismail Shalil, 23, covered in grey dust from his hands to his eyelashes as he sifts through the rubble and dust of what was once his home in the city, moving a single stray bullet carefully out of his path at the door. He was told that the building was used as a base by Iran-backed fighters and hit by an Israeli air strike in November 2024. In the rubble, The National found a copy of Keys to Heavens, a collection of prayers stamped with the words, “a gift from the Islamic Republic of Iran”.

Mr Shalil, currently unemployed, moved in with one of his uncles in another part of the city when he returned from Rukban. His eyes well with tears as talks about his years in the camp. “I don’t really want to remember it,” he said.

Rather, he recalls happier times from his childhood in Palmyra. “My best memories are of going up to the castle, the theatre and Triumphal Arch that were blown up,” he said, referring to locations within the Unesco world heritage site that Isis destroyed after seizing the city.

“If we are able to rebuild the house, we hope to come back to live here, because this is our land, our house, all our relatives are here,” Mr Shalil continued. “We hope all countries and organisations will help with this.”

Back in Rukban, Mr Khaled gently touches the leaves of one of his olive plants in a wide pottery basin. “We cannot leave without them,” he says.

SHAITTAN
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War

Director: Siddharth Anand

Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Tiger Shroff, Ashutosh Rana, Vaani Kapoor

Rating: Two out of five stars 

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The five new places of worship

Church of South Indian Parish

St Andrew's Church Mussaffah branch

St Andrew's Church Al Ain branch

St John's Baptist Church, Ruwais

Church of the Virgin Mary and St Paul the Apostle, Ruwais

 

if you go

The flights

Emirates offer flights to Buenos Aires from Dubai, via Rio De Janeiro from around Dh6,300. emirates.com

Seeing the games

Tangol sell experiences across South America and generally have good access to tickets for most of the big teams in Buenos Aires: Boca Juniors, River Plate, and Independiente. Prices from Dh550 and include pick up and drop off from your hotel in the city. tangol.com

 

Staying there

Tangol will pick up tourists from any hotel in Buenos Aires, but after the intensity of the game, the Faena makes for tranquil, upmarket accommodation. Doubles from Dh1,110. faena.com

 

Scores

New Zealand 266 for 9 in 50 overs
Pakistan 219 all out in 47.2 overs 

New Zealand win by 47 runs

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If you go

The flights
Emirates and Etihad fly direct to Nairobi, with fares starting from Dh1,695. The resort can be reached from Nairobi via a 35-minute flight from Wilson Airport or Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, or by road, which takes at least three hours.

The rooms
Rooms at Fairmont Mount Kenya range from Dh1,870 per night for a deluxe room to Dh11,000 per night for the William Holden Cottage.

What is the FNC?

The Federal National Council is one of five federal authorities established by the UAE constitution. It held its first session on December 2, 1972, a year to the day after Federation.
It has 40 members, eight of whom are women. The members represent the UAE population through each of the emirates. Abu Dhabi and Dubai have eight members each, Sharjah and Ras al Khaimah six, and Ajman, Fujairah and Umm Al Quwain have four.
They bring Emirati issues to the council for debate and put those concerns to ministers summoned for questioning. 
The FNC’s main functions include passing, amending or rejecting federal draft laws, discussing international treaties and agreements, and offering recommendations on general subjects raised during sessions.
Federal draft laws must first pass through the FNC for recommendations when members can amend the laws to suit the needs of citizens. The draft laws are then forwarded to the Cabinet for consideration and approval. 
Since 2006, half of the members have been elected by UAE citizens to serve four-year terms and the other half are appointed by the Ruler’s Courts of the seven emirates.
In the 2015 elections, 78 of the 252 candidates were women. Women also represented 48 per cent of all voters and 67 per cent of the voters were under the age of 40.
 

Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere

Director: Scott Cooper

Starring: Jeremy Allen White, Odessa Young, Jeremy Strong

Rating: 4/5

Essentials

The flights

Etihad (etihad.ae) and flydubai (flydubai.com) fly direct to Baku three times a week from Dh1,250 return, including taxes. 
 

The stay

A seven-night “Fundamental Detox” programme at the Chenot Palace (chenotpalace.com/en) costs from €3,000 (Dh13,197) per person, including taxes, accommodation, 3 medical consultations, 2 nutritional consultations, a detox diet, a body composition analysis, a bio-energetic check-up, four Chenot bio-energetic treatments, six Chenot energetic massages, six hydro-aromatherapy treatments, six phyto-mud treatments, six hydro-jet treatments and access to the gym, indoor pool, sauna and steam room. Additional tests and treatments cost extra.

Springtime in a Broken Mirror,
Mario Benedetti, Penguin Modern Classics

 

UAE’s revised Cricket World Cup League Two schedule

August, 2021: Host - United States; Teams - UAE, United States and Scotland

Between September and November, 2021 (dates TBC): Host - Namibia; Teams - Namibia, Oman, UAE

December, 2021: Host - UAE; Teams - UAE, Namibia, Oman

February, 2022: Hosts - Nepal; Teams - UAE, Nepal, PNG

June, 2022: Hosts - Scotland; Teams - UAE, United States, Scotland

September, 2022: Hosts - PNG; Teams - UAE, PNG, Nepal

February, 2023: Hosts - UAE; Teams - UAE, PNG, Nepal

The years Ramadan fell in May

1987

1954

1921

1888

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SPECS
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Timeline

2012-2015

The company offers payments/bribes to win key contracts in the Middle East

May 2017

The UK SFO officially opens investigation into Petrofac’s use of agents, corruption, and potential bribery to secure contracts

September 2021

Petrofac pleads guilty to seven counts of failing to prevent bribery under the UK Bribery Act

October 2021

Court fines Petrofac £77 million for bribery. Former executive receives a two-year suspended sentence 

December 2024

Petrofac enters into comprehensive restructuring to strengthen the financial position of the group

May 2025

The High Court of England and Wales approves the company’s restructuring plan

July 2025

The Court of Appeal issues a judgment challenging parts of the restructuring plan

August 2025

Petrofac issues a business update to execute the restructuring and confirms it will appeal the Court of Appeal decision

October 2025

Petrofac loses a major TenneT offshore wind contract worth €13 billion. Holding company files for administration in the UK. Petrofac delisted from the London Stock Exchange

November 2025

180 Petrofac employees laid off in the UAE

VERSTAPPEN'S FIRSTS

Youngest F1 driver (17 years 3 days Japan 2014)
Youngest driver to start an F1 race (17 years 166 days – Australia 2015)
Youngest F1 driver to score points (17 years 180 days - Malaysia 2015)
Youngest driver to lead an F1 race (18 years 228 days – Spain 2016)
Youngest driver to set an F1 fastest lap (19 years 44 days – Brazil 2016)
Youngest on F1 podium finish (18 years 228 days – Spain 2016)
Youngest F1 winner (18 years 228 days – Spain 2016)
Youngest multiple F1 race winner (Mexico 2017/18)
Youngest F1 driver to win the same race (Mexico 2017/18)

'Brazen'

Director: Monika Mitchell

Starring: Alyssa Milano, Sam Page, Colleen Wheeler

Rating: 3/5

Company profile

Name: Infinite8

Based: Dubai

Launch year: 2017

Number of employees: 90

Sector: Online gaming industry

Funding: $1.2m from a UAE angel investor

Updated: January 30, 2025, 8:49 AM