JIBREEN, Syria (AP) – Fatima Museitif got married three years ago and soon gave birth to two boys. Her husband died last year but since she was living in a rebel-held eastern neighborhood of Aleppo, she couldn’t obtain a marriage certificate, a death certificate for her husband or birth certificates for her children.
Now the 22-year-old is waiting for those documents as a Syrian non-governmental organization and the U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR, have set up an office at a shelter for displaced people just south of Aleppo so the displaced can finally obtain official government certificates or new identity cards.
Syrian rebels took control of large parts of east Aleppo in July 2012, and for more than four years residents in rebel-held areas were not able to register themselves because the state had no presence. Those who registered themselves at courthouses or local offices run by the rebels received documents that are not recognized by the Syrian government.
In December, government forces captured all of eastern Aleppo, bringing the city under full state control for the first time in more than four years. The capture of Aleppo was the biggest victory for President Bashar Assad since Syria’s crisis began in March 2011.
Thousands of east Aleppo residents left their neighborhoods and moved to nearby areas, including this village that is a main shelter for the tens of thousands of mostly impoverished displaced people. Many of those who left are, like Museitif, living without official documents – making their movement difficult in a country where security is extremely tight amid a war now in its sixth year.