DAMASCUS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd September, 2018) One of the opposition groups that are part of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) announced plans to evacuate residents of the Rukban refugee camp and the group's fighters to northern Syria, local media reported on Sunday.
The Rukban refugee camp, which now hosts about 50,000-60,000 people, is located in southern Syria on the border with Jordan on the territory controlled by the US-led coalition and allied Syrian opposition groups. The units of the Syrian army stay at the borders of this zone. Moscow and Washington accuse each other of hindering the delivery of UN humanitarian assistance to the area.
"We, the leadership of Liwa Shuhada al-Qaryatayn, will evacuate from the Rukban camp those wishing to do this and our fighters to northern Syria," the group's statement published on the opposition portal el-Dorar said.
At the same time, the group did not indicate specific place where people would be evacuated.
Syrian Interior Ministry spokesman Hassan Marouf said on August 30 at a meeting of the Russian-Syrian Joint Coordination Committee on the return of refugees to Syria that the first organized transfer of Syrian citizens from the Rukban refugee camp to their homes was planned.
The Russian Foreign Ministry is working closely with the United States on the evacuation of refugees from the Rukban camp to the territory controlled by the Syrian government, the ministry's representative, Nikolai Burtsev, said on Wednesday at a meeting of the interdepartmental committees of Russia and Syria on the return of refugees.
