Children in the Rukban camp for displaced Syrians near the Jordanian border (File)

Human rights activists have written UK Prime Minister Theresa May, appealing for assistance for 50,000 displaced Syrians in the Rukban camp in southeast Syria, near the Jordanian border.

Russia and the Assad regime are seeking the return of the residents to their home areas, which they fled because of Islamic State attacks from 2015. However, many fear detentions and forced conscription and are uncertain about the status of their property.

The Assad regime has put the area under siege this autumn, cutting off the main route and blocking aid until a single UN convoy — the first since January — finally reached the camp earlier this month. Jordan, which closed the border in June 2016 after an ISIS suicide bombing, has compounded the shortages of food, medicine, and supplies by preventing the movement of goods across the frontier.

Last week Jordan said it is in talks with Russia and the US for the removal of the residents, with some going to opposition territory in northwest Syria and others to their home areas.

Syria Daily, Nov 9: Jordan-US-Russia Talks to Close Rukban Camp for 50,000

Dear Prime Minister:

Re: Rukban camp and the legal responsibilities of the UK

We write as representatives of Syrian community organisations and concerned human rights organisations, to draw your attention to a recent briefing to MPs on the potentially catastrophic situation in Rukban camp on the border of Syria and Jordan. Since that briefing, a UN aid convoy from Damascus has managed to reach the camp with supplies. This was the first aid delivery since cross-border aid was delivered by crane across the Jordanian border in January.

UN reliance on permissions from Damascus has been catastrophic for besieged civilians in so many Syrian towns and cities, and is agonizing now for the inhabitants of Rukban, some of whom have died of medical neglect while awaiting UN aid.

As you will know, Rukban camp is situated within the US-UK Coalition’s Tanf Deconfliction Zone around the Coalition base at Tanf, southern Syria. The base has been used by UK forces training anti-ISIS fighters, and the zone is militarily defended by the Royal Air Force.

As the US-UK Coalition have taken military control of the zone, so they have legal duties to civilians in the zone under the Geneva Conventions. In particular Article 55 of Convention IV states:

To the fullest extent of the means available to it, the Occupying Power has the duty of ensuring the food and medical supplies of the population; it should, in particular, bring in the necessary foodstuffs, medical stores and other articles if the resources of the occupied territory are inadequate.

Relying on UN aid via Damascus is not a secure solution. UN convoys are only permitted to depart Damascus with facilitation letters signed by Assad regime officials. All such letters must be signed by Jamil Hassan, head of Air Force Intelligence, a man sanctioned by the UK and EU and subject to international arrest warrants issued by Germany and France for his part in the mass torture and killing of prisoners in Syria.

We call on the UK Government and the UK’s American allies to recognize their duty to bring in aid into the area under their military control whenever other options for cross-line or cross-border aid delivery fail.

We further call on the UK Government and the UK’s American allies to fulfil all their other duties to the civilian population, be they in the areas of education under Article 50 of Convention IV, health under Article 56, or any other duties of an occupying power.

Yours respectfully,

Dr Haytham Alhamwi, Rethink Rebuild Society, Syrian Community of Manchester
Mazen Ejbaei, Help4Syria UK
Dr Fadel Moghrabi, Peace and Justice for Syria
Dr Amer Masri, Scotland4Syria
Clara Connolly, Syria Solidarity UK
Catherine Anderson, The Jo Cox Foundation
Samuel Rushworth, Labour Campaign for International Development