Access to food ‘precarious’ for Syrian refugees

AMMAN, Jordan — The U.N. humanitarian chief called for immediate “life-saving” access to 50,000 displaced Syrians stranded on the sealed border with Jordan, as aid officials reported a sharp drop in food supplies in the remote desert camp since Syrian government forces advanced toward the area in the summer.

Black market prices for food have soared and malnutrition is on the rise among young children in the Rukban camp, the officials said.

Mark Lowcock, the U.N. official, told the U.N. Security Council in a Syria briefing that a long-term solution is needed for getting aid to Rukban.

He said that “the best approach is to find a solution from within Syria” — an apparent shift after U.N. agencies held months of largely unsuccessful talks with Jordan about access to the camp.

Speaking to the Security Council after meetings with Jordanian officials on Monday, Lowcock said U.N. agencies are “straining every sinew” to find a way to deliver aid from Syria.

Jordan sealed its border with Syria in June 2016, after a crossborder car bomb by Islamic State extremists killed seven Jordanian border guards.

The pro-Western kingdom has defended the closure, saying its security trumps humanitarian considerations, and that the attack underscored warnings that Rukban has been infiltrated by Islamic State sympathizers.

The international community is reluctant to pressure Jordan, which is hosting a large number of refugees. In all, more than 5 million Syrians fled their country since 2011, including about 660,000 registered refugees in Jordan.

Jordan’s foreign minister told European Union diplomats last month that Syria and the international community, not Jordan, bear responsibility for Rukban.

U.N. aid deliveries to Rukban from inside Syria would require permission from the government in Damascus and also pose safety risks for staff crossing front lines.

Since Jordan’s border closure, U.N. agencies have carried out only two distributions from Jordan, in addition to a partial one in June.

At one point, food was hoisted by cranes from Jordan and dropped off near Rukban. A subsequent system of delivery, through a Jordanian contractor, has repeatedly broken down.

A U.N.-run clinic continues to operate on Jordanian soil, several miles from Rukban, and receives 100 to 150 patients per day, said other aid officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because of ongoing talks with Jordan.