Source: Amnesty International –
The United States (US) should urgently provide humanitarian aid to at least 8,000 displaced Syrians stranded in the besieged, isolated Rukban camp under US de facto control on Syria’s border with Jordan and Iraq without access to sufficient food, clean water or healthcare, Amnesty International said today.
The already dire humanitarian situation at the camp has deteriorated sharply in recent months after the Syrian government tightened the siege it has imposed on the territory around the camp since 2015, setting up checkpoints that have blocked informal smuggling routes that the camp’s residents relied on for essential supplies. The last UN humanitarian convoy allowed into the camp by the Syrian government was nearly five years ago in September 2019.
The US military operates a base near Rukban camp and has de facto effective control over the 55km territory on which the base and the camp are located. As such and in light of other governments’ human rights failures, the US government has an obligation under international human rights law to ensure that residents of the camp have access to essential supplies.
“It is unfathomable that thousands of people, including children, are stranded in an arid wasteland struggling to survive without access to life-saving necessities. The residents of Rukban are victims of a brutal Syrian government siege, they have been barred from safe refuge or faced unlawful deportations at the hands of the Jordanian authorities and been met with apparent nonchalance by the US,” said Aya Majzoub, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa.
An estimated 80,000 people lived in Rukban before Jordan sealed its border to the area in 2016. That number has dwindled to 8,000 today as most left due to the dire conditions. Despite the serious risks facing them in Syrian government controlled areas, including being labelled “terrorists” and being subjected to arbitrary detention, torture, enforced disappearance and other human rights violations for expressing opposition to the Syrian government, tens of thousands have had no option but to take this risk. Today, Jordan continues to unlawfully deport Syrians to Rukban despite the camp’s unliveable conditions, while the US makes little visible effort to improve the desperate conditions despite its ability to do so.
“The Syrian government must immediately lift its siege on the area and allow humanitarian aid deliveries to reach residents of the camp. In addition, given that the US has de facto effective control over the territory on which the camp is located, it should fulfil its human rights obligations and ensure that the camp’s residents have access to food, water and essential healthcare. Meanwhile, the international community must work towards sustainable solutions for the camp’s residents, such as the re-opening of the border with Jordan or safe passage to other areas in Syria where individuals would not face human rights violations,” said Aya Majzoub.