Plans should be put into action to improve Syria's political system and economy in order to facilitate the large-scale return of refugees from abroad, the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Peter Maurer, told Sputnik in an interview
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 17th November, 2020) Plans should be put into action to improve Syria's political system and economy in order to facilitate the large-scale return of refugees from abroad, the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Peter Maurer, told Sputnik in an interview.
"We are certainly of the opinion that we need to continue to create conditions under which people can return and humanitarian assistance is an instrument to do so. My opinion is that humanitarian assistance is not the only instrument to do so. And you don't need only infrastructural and economic assistance in order to have people return. You need political conditions under which they feel safe," Maurer stated.
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, hundreds of Syrian refugees based in Lebanon are returning to their homeland each day. The ICRC president said that the large-scale return of millions of Syrian citizens still living abroad can only take place once improvements are made to the country's economy and political system.
"We need economic and political ramifications to be better so that people in larger numbers are able to return and feel safe to return," Maurer stated.
The ICRC is working diligently in Syria to create the conditions that will allow for refugees to return to the middle Eastern country, Maurer added.
"ICRC humanitarian work in Syria has, overall, to be understood as an effort to stabilize the situation so that people can return whether these people are internally displaced or whether they are refugees. ICRC has always maintained that humanitarian work should first and foremost stabilize and create conditions and the environment in which people can return," he said.
A two-day international conference on the topic of the return of Syrian refugees was held in Damascus from November 11-12.� Speaking ahead of the conference, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that as many as 6.5 million Syrian refugees are based abroad.
Syrian President Bashar Assad said at the international conference that many refugees are seeking a return to their home country.
