The difficult situation in Syria after the earthquake: “Only two rescue groups have gone and there is no machinery to lift rubble and rescue people”

Five days have passed since the terrible earthquake and in Syria, things are almost as he left them. In this sense, Raquel Martí, spokesperson for UNRWA, laments that “only two international rescue groupsone Algerian and one Iraqi”. This team is joined by some 3,000 White Helmets, which is an insufficient device for such a disaster. In addition, Raquel Martí denounces that “no heavy machinery in the area to lift the rubble and get the trapped people out”.

Syria is still a country at war, and the affected area by the earthquakes has difficult access. The UNRWA spokeswoman explains in this regard that “it is an area divided into different opposition groups to the Syrian regime.” There, UNRWA, has four refugee camps, and two of them are badly affected by the earthquake. “The overpopulation of these fields, together with precarious infrastructures, makes us fear that the situation we are going to find is going to be quite catastrophic,” says Raquel Martí.

The 12 years of war have also left nearly seven million internally displaced, Syrian families who fled the horror of the bombs and took refuge close to the Ukrainian border. There, from day one, the United Nations distributes pre-positioned humanitarian aid in the country, such as “thermal blankets, jerrycans to store water or solar lamps”, as indicated by María Jesús Vega, UNHCR spokesperson.

Although the first convoys are already arriving at the camps, many Syrian refugees have also crossed the border and reached Turkey. “In the ten most affected provinces, there is a Syrian refugee population of approximately 1.7 million,” says María Jesús Vega. These are refugees whom the earthquake could return to the past. Thus, this population, which in 70% depends on humanitarian aidhas been forced to make one more effort.