Vice-President of the Syrian Opposition Coalition (SOC), Abdulahad Astepho, called on the United Nations, international organizations and European Union to take urgent action to rescue 39 Syrian asylum seekers, including women and children, who have been stranded for nearly a month on a small isolated Greek island in the Evros river on the border with Turkey.
Reports indicated that Syrian asylum seekers are living in difficult conditions after being stranded, where there is no food, water, or medicine. The Greek authorities refuse to allow humanitarian organizations to offer help. A five-year-old girl died of a scorpion sting, while her older sister is still fighting for her life for the same reason.
Astepho said that saving these asylum seekers should be a priority for the United Nations, international organizations and European Union, stressing the need to find a solution to their problem as soon as possible as they are located in areas that everyone can access.
Astepho called on the European Union to put an end to the attacks on Syrian asylum seekers in Greece, stressing need to respect the 1951 Refugee Convention, and to treat arrivals in transit countries in accordance with its provisions.
He also stressed that the Syrians are living the worst humanitarian catastrophe that the world has seen since the Second World War, and that they are paying the price of the international community’s failure to stop the brutal attacks on them to save them. He also stressed that until the international community ensures respect for international resolutions, it bears the consequences of what the Syrian people are exposed to, especially during their journeys to safer places for themselves and their children.
(Source: SOC’s Media Department)
