Syria, Russia continue working to secure the return of Syrian refugees to liberated areas

The Syrian and Russian Coordination Commissions for the Return of the Displaced Syrians have affirmed that Syria and Russia continue to work for providing various assistance to secure the voluntary and safe return of the displaced people to the homeland despite the obstacles that the American side is still creating to prevent their return. 

 

“The return of the displaced Syrians to their homeland remains a priority for the Syrian state, which is making the utmost efforts to rehabilitate infrastructure and public facilities and create job opportunities to secure the return of Syrians to their liberated areas,” the two commissions added in a joint statement released on Wednesday. 

 

The statement underlined that the “illegal economic sanctions, and the failure of US  its allies to respect the sovereignty of Syria and its occupation of parts of Syria’s lands impede the efforts of the Syrian state to advance the process of the return of refugees.”

 

It pointed out  that the representatives of international humanitarian organizations in Syria have called more than once to ease the sanctions policy imposed by US on Syrian citizens, which hinder the delivery of foodstuffs and medicines, including the necessary ones that must be available to confront the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic among the Syrian citizens.”

 

“Regardless of the claims of the American side that it stands by the general humanitarian values, all calls for easing the inhuman sanctions are still absent because the US’s interests in Syria are limited to plundering national wealth, which leads to the continuity of preventing the return of Syrian citizens and the reconstruction in the post-war phase, and it spreads false propaganda in the areas under its control aimed at preventing Syrian citizens from returning to their country,” the statement read.

 

It referred to the statements of the UN High Commissioner “Which refer to the low standard of living of the displaced Syrians in neighboring countries, especially with regard to the shortage of food, drinking water, building materials, housing and medicine, in addition to the high death rate of the displaced Syrians in neighboring countries due to the Coronavirus.”

 

The statement noted that “the territories occupied by the US forces in al-Tanf area on the Syrian-Jordanian borders and in the Syrian al-Jazeera region are witnessing violations of all basic human rights norms and the neglect of the needs of the civilian population living in the camps of the displaced, as the situation of the Syrian citizens in al-Rukban and al-Houl camps approaches the humanitarian catastrophe and worsens due to the Coronavirus pandemic and economic sanctions.”

 

“These factors lead to an increase in tension among the residents of al-Houl camp and push them towards more militancy, which reveals concretely that the United States of America is working in various ways to achieve geopolitical goals that have absolutely nothing to do with restoring peaceful life to Syria and the Middle East in general,” the statement said.

 

The two commissions concluded  by  calling on the United States of America to stop destabilizing the social and economic situation in Syria and immediately exit from the lands it occupies in Syria  and remove the unilateral coercive measures being imposed on the Syrian people.”

 

Basma Qaddour