Families fleeing Syria violence shelter in prison

Some families fleeing violence in North-West Syria are seeking refuge in a former prison, as nearly one million people have been displaced, according to the United Nations.

The latest Syrian government offensive has been advancing since December into the country's last rebel stronghold, which spans Idlib province and parts of the nearby Aleppo region.

Turkish troops have been deployed in some of those rebel-held areas to monitor an earlier cease-fire that was agreed to but has since collapsed.

The UN said 900,000 people have been displaced since 1 December due to the hostilities, most of them women and children.

Idlib province is home to some three million people, many of them displaced from other parts of Syria in earlier bouts of violence.

For those who couldn't afford housing and couldn't get to many make-shift camps in the area have come to what once was a prison.

Seventy-five families are now sharing small cramped spaces in the prison.

The rooms have no windows and as many as three families share a prison cell.

Abu Ahmed, fled from the small village of Ma`rat al-Numan al-Sharqi.

He said that with little heating and supplies, families are struggling to survive.

To keep warm, families were forced to burn whatever they could find to keep warm, including burning plastic bags that could bring out toxic fumes.

For the many children, the thought of sleeping in the same place that once housed criminals is frightening.

"The walls of the prison are scaring us so much," said 11-year-old Muhammad Hassan al-Dughaim.

"Because all these rooms had criminals. Criminals lived here."

Image Source: AP