Only 329 refugees left Syria's Rukban refugee camp from September 26-29 instead of the planned 2,000, Hedinn Halldorsson, the spokesman for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Syria, confirmed to Sputnik on Tuesday
DAMASCUS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 01st October, 2019) Only 329 refugees left Syria's Rukban refugee camp from September 26-29 instead of the planned 2,000, Hedinn Halldorsson, the spokesman for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Syria, confirmed to Sputnik on Tuesday.
Earlier in the day, the joint Russia-Syria coordination center on refugee repatriation accused Washington of disrupting the resettlement of refugees from the camp, which is located in a US-controlled area. The center said that on September 29 only 336 people were present at the Jleb checkpoint instead of over 2,000 Syrians supposed to be evacuated from the camp, where thousands of refugees are kept in deplorable conditions.
"The UN and SARC [Syrian Arab Red Crescent] assisted voluntary departures of 329 people from Rukban to collective shelters in government-controlled Homs between 26-29 September," Halldorsson said,
"Those who left had received pre-approved clearance from the Syrian authorities and had expressed a clear will to leave without having the means to do so. They will then continue on to their areas of origin, or a destination of choice. Currently, further voluntary, assisted departures in coming weeks, are being prepared by UN/SARC," he added.
