Syrians live in prisons, makeshift camps in Idlib

A group of displaced people in the rebel-held Syrian province of Idlib have found refuge in a deserted prison. Some 90 displaced families are living in the prison in the centre of Idlib city, having fled there from Maaret al-Numan, a key town in the province that fell to government forces in January.

Families, men and women, live on top of each other in the prison rooms, divided into sleeping, cooking and bathing areas by hung sheets and blankets, giving a deceptive sense of privacy.

"We isolated the rooms, cleaned them, and removed the dirt from the floor. All the sewers were blocked," said Hossam Ajjaj, one of the displaced men who live there now.

"In every room there are three families and some rooms have two families. We settled in and there are no lockers or anything. We cannot afford to go to another place and rent," he added.

The Associated Press travelled to Idlib, escorted by members of a media organisation linked to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, an al-Qaida-linked group that dominates the area.

Successive waves of displacement have left the province practically full - some three million live in Idlib now, many of them stuck in makeshift displacement camps at the edge of the city.

A huge number of children are among the displaced. Of the nearly one million people who have had to leave their homes since December last year, more than half are children, the UN estimates.

A three-month government offensive, which has already wrested almost half of the province from the rebels, has been suspended by a Russian-Turkish ceasefire deal.

But that's left residents of the rebel enclave, including Idlib city, in a state of terrifying limbo.

They doubt the ceasefire will last and well aware they are likely to be the government's next target.

But one man, Mohammed Nour, said he still believes that one day he could return home.

"This is our hope," he said. "We have trust in God and the international community to suppress this criminal regime and stop the oppression of our people so that they can return to their homes, their areas, their villages."