Rukban humanitarian situation still dire, says camp spokesman

Omar Al Beniai, spokesman for the Tadmur and Syrian Badiyyeh tribes in the Rukban camp, said that humanitarian aid has not arrived to the camp in four months.

Beniai’s response comes after Jordanian Minister of Media Affairs, Mohammad Momani, dismissed “ungrounded” claims that Jordan was responsible for the delay in humanitarian aid to the camp.

However, Beniai told Ro’ya that refugees are being mistreated by UN agencies, and accused UNICEF from expelling a pregnant woman from the medical clinic after she contacted media.

The UN could not be reached to confirm Beniai's claims.

When Beniai was asked whether or not UN organisations are being pressured by the Jordanian government, he said, “we don’t know the exact nature of the Jordanian government’s relation with UNICEF, but UNICEF is an international organisation and it has diplomatic immunity.”

Qatari newspapers had previously reported four months ago that Jordan is planning to remove the Rukban refugee camp in the coming months, by pressuring its residents to leave.

The Jordan Times also reported that camp is expected to close in the near future, quoting a U.N. official as saying: “The momentum of operation in the camp is declining and interventions by aid agencies are also decreasing… the camp is expected to be removed in the next few months as the number of its resident is shrinking.”

However, Beniai denied the rumours, noting: “The Jordanian government says that Rukban is in Syrian land. What gives them them the right to remove it?”

Beniai added that Rukban camp’s population has increased to 100,000, after the deportation of the refugees of Hadalat camp weeks ago as Syrian regime forces advanced in the south east. He added that the increase in the camp’s population has made the humanitarian situation in the camp significantly worse.

Rukban lies between the Syrian, Jordanian, and Iraqi borders, and houses Syrian refugees who hoped to enter Jordan.

Jordan declared the northern and northeastern border areas a closed military zone in June, 2016, following an ISIS attack that targeted a military post near the border, killing seven security forces and injuring 13 others.