The United Nations on Monday said that it wants to do more to help the people of al-Rukban refugee camp in southeast Syria — those who fled and those are still there — if granted full access. Dozens have already died in the camp as a result of the tightened blockade the Assad regime and Russia impose on the desert camp.
Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, expressed the world organization’s willingness to engage more directly if granted full access.
On Sunday, 1,433 people left al-Rukban, Dujarric said, adding that more than half of them were children.
Local news networks on Sunday reported that the Assad forces executed two young men who had recently left al-Rukban camp near the Jordanian border to the neighborhood of Deir Baalba in Homs city.
Activist Imad Ghali who stays in al-Rukban refugee camp said that Assad regime forces shot the two young men dead after detaining them upon their arrival at the neighborhood of Deir Baalba.
Ghali pointed out that the Assad forces detained about 20 returnees and took them to an unknown destination.
The majority of people in the camp chose to stay in dire humanitarian conditions than to be evacuated to the Assad-held areas. The civilian administration of the camp on Monday called on the global community not to allow Russia and the Assad regime to solely decide on the fate of the people trapped in the camp.
The administration said that the majority of the people in the camp reject returning to the Assad regime-held 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. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department)
