Desperate residents flee Syrian refugee camp as supplies run out
The Syrian regime's siege on the Rukban camp near the Jordanian border has tightened over the past two months, prompting many of the camp’s residents to risk arrest by leaving.
The Syrian Response Coordination Group, an Idlib-based humanitarian association assisting the displaced, recently spoke out against the Syrian regime's siege on the Rukban camp, blocking food and medical supplies for more than 1,000 families on the Syrian-Jordanian border.
In a statement posted to Facebook May 24, the group said that the regime’s “concept of hunger or surrender” is tantamount to a “war crime against civilians living in the camp” and that the regime is seeking to starve those living there into returning to the areas under its control.
Before 2018, the camp housed about 70,000 people, but most of them have been forced to leave for regime-held areas. Only an estimated 7,000 to 10,000 remain.
Regime and Russian forces have further restricted access to the camp in the past few days and flour, food, medicine, baby formula and fuel, among other basic commodities, have run out. Many residents are fleeing the camp in light of the miserable conditions, with high prices for basic materials as a result of the regime's taxes on food trucks entering the camp and a lack of job opportunities.
