Ramallah: A safe haven for Palestinians in Syria has degenerated into a crisis ridden refugee camp under the attacks and occupation of Daesh fighters.

Yarmouk refugee camp is only five miles from the centre of Damascus. Britain’s Guardian newspaper has described Yarmouk as, “The worst place on earth.” The residents have had no electricity for months, no safe water supply, no food deliveries and no opportunity to leave.

According to Jonathan Steele in the Guardian, only a small number of emergency medical cases have been allowed to exit.

“Some called it Syria’s Gaza,” Steele wrote, “but its plight was even worse, because the siege was more comprehensive; Yarmouk was a prison from which there was no escape.”

The UN has been unable to deliver food to the refugee camp since 6 December 2014 and UNRWA has recounted unconfirmed reports of deaths due to malnourishment.

At one time, Yarmouk was seen as a desirable place for Palestinians displaced from the Palestinian territories.

The camp was founded in 1957 and quickly had permanent buildings erected in it. In time it became another section of Damascus. Before the current civil war, the camp housed 150,000 Palestinians and over half a million Syrians.

Nidal Bitari, a co-founder of the Palestinian Association for Human Rights in Syria, was a resident of Yarmouk and fled Syria at the end of 2011. In 2013, in a detailed history of Yarmouk he wrote that in the pre-war period, Palestinians in the camp enjoyed good conditions.

“By law they enjoy almost all the rights and benefits of Syrian nationals except citizenship and the right to vote. They have full access to Syrian schools and universities on the same basis as citizens … And because their numbers are tiny compared to the general Syrian population (less than 2%), the refugees were never perceived as a threat, and the degree of integration between Palestinians and Syrians – through work, education, and intermarriage – has no parallel in the Arab world.”

The UNRWA has stated that, “Yarmouk was once the bustling, prosperous heart of the Palestinian community in Syria; home to some 160,000 Palestine refugees and about a million Syrians. Today, about 18,000 are trapped in Yarmouk with limited access to food and water. There is no electricity, and most civilians cannot meet essential needs such as health care, household items, adequate shelter and heating. The desperate humanitarian situation has worsened as sniper fire, mortar impacts and heightened insecurity have prevented UNWRA from distributing life-saving aid.”

Daesh is reported to have invaded the camp and is believed to currently occupy half of it.