The civilian administration of the Rukban refugee camp on Tuesday called on countries that are scheduled to meet with Russia in the Jordanian capital Amman in the coming days not to allow Russia and Assad’s regime to decide on the fate of the people trapped in the camp.
The administration appealed to Washington and the European Union to intervene to protect the people in the camp and not to leave them an easy prey to the Assad regime and its Russian ally. It stressed the need to prevent the Assad regime and Russia from continuing to use food and medicine as a weapon against people in the camp in order to force them to return to the regime-held areas.
The administration said that the majority of the people in the camp rejected any attempt to reach a settlement with the Assad regime and return to its areas. It added that the refugees fear arrest and enforced disappearance if they return as the Iranian militias have presence in most of the towns and villages of eastern Homs.
Moreover, the administration added that it represents the overwhelming majority of the people in the camp as it called for evacuating the people trapped in the camp to northern Syria or allowing the entry of food and fuel to the camp.
The administration demanded that the residents of the Rukban camp be given the right to self-determination and to provide them with protection either by evacuating them to the liberated north or allowing them to return to their areas of origin without being subjected to reprisal by the regime.
Some 200 households have recently left the camp on the border with Jordan to the regime-held areas in central Syria under “settlement” with Russia.
The dire living conditions in the camp such as extreme poverty and deteriorating health have forced the families to return. The majority of the 60,000 civilians living in the camp repeatedly said they would not return to the regime-held areas. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department)
