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Over 85% of Syrian refugees who left Rukban camp return home

The Rukban refugee camp emerged on the Syrian-Jordanian border in 2014 after Amman had closed the border due to security and economic concerns

MOSCOW, May 29. /TASS/. More than 85% of former citizens of Syria’s Rukban camp have come back home, while some 30,000 people still remain there, the heads of the Russian and Syrian inter-agency coordination headquarters, Mikhail Mizintsev and Hussein Makhlouf, said in a joint statement on Wednesday.

"Over 85% of Syrians who have returned from Rukban have moved to their places of residence," the document said. The sides voiced hope that soon the citizens will "manage to forget those inhuman conditions of stay in shabby tents without food, water and sewerage near improvised graves and dumps at the camp."

The statement highlights that one in two refugees, who have left the camp, is diagnosed with chronic diseases, including tuberculosis, by doctors of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent. According to the heads of the coordination headquarters, nearly 30,000 people continue living in the camp "in inhuman and humiliating conditions."

The Rukban refugee camp emerged on the Syrian-Jordanian border in 2014 after Amman had closed the border due to security and economic concerns. The area, controlled by illegal armed gangs, is facing a severe humanitarian crisis.