AI calls on UN Security Council to extend aid shipment across Syrian border

July 5. (EUROPA PRESS) –

The non-governmental organization Amnesty International has asked the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday to extend for another year the sending of aid through the last humanitarian corridor on the Syrian border with Turkey, after the body last extended border aid on July 9, 2021.

The UN Security Council extended the corridor for the last time for a year in July 2021, one day before the deadline for the humanitarian aid corridor to expire, as detailed by the NGO in a statement.

Now, Amnesty International estimates that as a result of the Syrian government’s denial or obstruction of the war-displaced population, more than 1.7 million people (58 per cent of whom are children) could lose their ” enjoyment of economic and social rights.

Likewise, the internally displaced population that lives in camps in appalling conditions is considered “extremely vulnerable”, according to the organization, which maintains that most of the people who live in tents have “little or no” access to water and sanitation, which increases the risk of contracting waterborne diseases.

“Many of these displaced men, women and children have been living in conditions of absolute destitution for more than six years in northwest Syria. They have little prospect of returning home due to the human rights violations that the Syrian authorities continue to committing in their places of origin,” said Amnesty International’s Acting Director Diana Seeman.

“Since losing control of the northwestern part of the country, the Syrian government has cut off water and electricity supplies, obstructed access for humanitarian aid and attacked camps, medical centers and schools, placing the onus on humanitarian organizations to provide those services,” he added.

Amnesty International carried out a report during 2021 and 2022 to determine the lack of access of the population residing in camps, predominantly in Idlib, to their rights to adequate housing, water and sanitation, as well as health. The organization interviewed a total of 45 people, including humanitarian aid and medical personnel, as well as displaced women and men from the area, according to data from the organization.

On May 26, the United Nations Commission of Inquiry for Syria warned that, in the event that the UN Security Council did not extend cross-border aid to Syria, then it would be talking about a “failure of the first order”.

The commission stressed that in a context in which Syria is facing its “worst economic and humanitarian crisis since the beginning of the conflict”, the international community must guarantee assistance to the country and prolong the current commitment, which expires on July 10 .

Already last week, members of the Security Council expressed sometimes opposing views on the need to extend this authorization, which since 2014 has guaranteed access to aid that millions of Syrians desperately need.

On the other hand, during the last extension a year ago, Amnesty International criticized it as a “compromise” resolution.

“Allowing a single crossing at Bab al Hawa once again for one or possibly two six-month periods is essential, but minimal, and remains woefully insufficient to meet the overwhelming humanitarian needs of the civilian population,” it said in a statement.

The NGO Amnesty International has criticized the conditions of the extension, which it has described as a “compromise” resolution and accuses Russia of “ignoring” with its conditions “the humanitarian needs of the Syrians”, in the words of the head of the office of the UN of Amnesty International, Sherine Tadros.