Ala Urges International Community to Support Anti-Terrorism Efforts to Help Syrian Refugees Return Home

GENEVA, (ST)-Terrorism has led to the displacement of millions of people who fled the atrocities of the terrorist organizations, Syria’s Permanent Representative at the United Nations in Geneva Hussam Eddin Ala has said, stressing the importance of providing real and sincere support for the fight against  terrorism.

“The crimes of the terrorist organizations in Syria have displaced the Syrians from their houses and forced them to move towards safer areas inside the country and under the protection of the Syrian state,” Ala said in a statement on Wednesday during a high ranking meeting organized by the Higher Commission for Refugees to discuss international responsibility sharing in the refugee issue.

 “The Syrian Army’s liberation of many areas from the terrorists of Deash, Jabhet al-Nusra and other terrorist organizations in addition to the successful local reconciliation cases in different Syrian areas have contributed to the return of many displaced people to their original places,” he added.

He pointed out that Syria was a leading country in hosting refugees from different Arab countries, but the foreign-backed wave of terrorism and extremism which has been hitting Syria has destroyed the achievements made by the Syrian people over decades of development and has caused serious damage to the infrastructure and the service sector valued at more than $200 billion.

“Today’s meeting comes amid mounting international attention given to the immigrants and refugees’ issues and in the light of the continuous increase of the number of immigrants and refugees in the world and the challenges resulted from the International community’s unserious dealing with the main causes of displacement and immigration in many parts of the world,” Ala said. 

“The meeting sheds light on the Syrians’ suffering over five years of terrorist war and discusses the possibility of ensuring an international contribution in the response to the deteriorating humanitarian situation in the country,” he added.

Ala regretted that some countries had established refugees camps on their territories months before the tragic events in Syria in order to exploit the poor situation of the refugees and push them towards the training camps of the terrorist organizations

He urged the international community to act immediately as to help all the refugees, who were forced to leave Syria, return home and to work hard in order to provide suitable circumstances for the return of the displaced. However, Ala warned against adopting alternative options like the resettlement of refugees in other countries and using this as a means to deprive Syria from creative minds and skills it needs.

He also called for directing the international attention towards supporting all efforts aiming to eliminate takfiri terrorism in Syria, to attain a political solution to the crisis based on unconditional intra-Syrian dialogue away from foreign interference and to lift the unilateral economic sanctions imposed on the Syrian people.

Hamda Mustafa