Humanitarian Actors Need To Be Part Of Decision-Making On Rukban Camp - IFRC

Humanitarian actors should take part in decision-making on the future of Rukban refugee camp in Syria, Paula Fitzgerald, the head of the country office in Syria at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), told Sputnik

BRUSSELS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 14th March, 2019) Humanitarian actors should take part in decision-making on the future of Rukban refugee camp in Syria, Paula Fitzgerald, the head of the country office in Syria at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), told Sputnik.

Ayman Safadi, the foreign minister of neighboring Jordan, said earlier in the day that his country was working with the United States and Russia on the issue. He remarked, however, that the issue of the camp should ultimately be resolved by Syria.

"We would like to see some decisions made that would allow people to move back from there [Rukban] to where they want to be. Whatever we do, it's a bad day at this point, and bad day still remains there. We can get some services to them, on occasion, but that's not a solution.

We need Rukban to be resolved and we hope that the decision-makers will allow humanitarian community to be part of resolving that issue," Fitzgerald said.

The camp is part of the US-controlled zone around its At-Tanf base in Syria. Access for aid has been complicated, which has had a devastating effect on the inhabitants. The World Health Organization's Representative in Syria Elizabeth Hoff told Sputnik earlier this week that efforts to send a new humanitarian aid convoy to the camp were underway.

The second joint humanitarian convoy of the United Nations and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent arrived in Rukban in early February. The supplies that were delivered are expected to run out by mid-March, according to humanitarian organizations' estimates.