Barely 10 years ago, Hussein Alhussein Maghrbi and his family fled the war in Syria. A bomb had destroyed their home.
With nothing left, he took his wife and children across the border to Turkey – and two years later to his new home country: Sweden.
However, his older children and their families remained in Turkey, as well as several other relatives. When the earthquake struck, there was nothing to protect them.
– I no longer know where we should go. Wherever we go, we have our homes destroyed, laments Hussein. My children and grandchildren have once again become homeless, and this time they have nowhere to go.
“The cold will kill many children”
25 people in Hussein’s family in Turkey have died, including his sister and her two daughters. Some have not yet been found under the race masses.
The worst thing, says Hussein, is that at the same time as people are rescued from the racial masses, survivors die because of the cold. During the nights, it will be below zero and many people have neither a roof over their head nor warm clothes.
– Many ran out or were rescued from the racial masses in just underwear and pyjamas, says Hussein.
Two of Hussein’s sons survived and are trying to take care of the family they have left, including nieces and nephews who were orphaned.
Waiting to live in a tent
The very day after the two earthquakes that destroyed over 5,600 buildings in Turkey and Syria, he started calling around to the Red Cross and other aid organizations, both on site and in Sweden.
He tried to get a place for his relatives in one of the tents being erected for the hundreds of thousands of people left homeless.
– But after two weeks we are still standing in the queue. The aid organizations do not have time to help everyone and many more will die, says Hussein.
Over 6,000 aftershocks have been recorded, Monday’s tremor being the strongest since the initial days of the earthquake disaster.