A little girl died at the al-Rukban refugee camp at the borders with Jordan due to absent healthcare, and the Jordanian medical point’s refusal to receive the camp’s patients.

The little girl Khadija Karim al-Mutlak, four months old, died as a result of her very poor state of health and the camp’s shortage of medical points, Abdullah Abdul Karim, an activist at the camp, told Enab Baladi, yesterday, December 6.

He added that “UNICEF’s” medical point, at the Jordanian side of the borders with Syria, refused to host the little girl Khadija, despite her family’s many attempts at admitting her as to provide her with treatment.

The “Camp’s Civil Administration” accused Jordan of preventing the “UNICEF’s” medical point, the only one in the camp, from receiving patients and pointed a finger of blame at Jordan, as it refuses the patients’ entry into its territories.

Jordan views the camp’s dilemma a Syrian, not a Jordanian, one because it is located at a Syrian territory. Many Times, it refused to allow aid into the camp, fearing that refugees would sneak from there to the Kingdom.

Despite the cold and the worsening weather at the desert, healthcare is absent at the camp, where the refugees are suffering dire living conditions, according to Abdul Karim.

With winters arrival, many illnesses proliferated among the al-Rukban camp’s refugees, leading to an increase in the number of patients and the death of several others, including children, in the past two months.

In a demonstration on last September 21, the refugees accused the “UNICEF’s” medical point, based at the Jordanian territory, and the only one in the camp, of abstinence from receiving patients.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has appealed to all the actors in Syria to admit aid to the besieged refugees.

The organization, on October 10, posted the following on its “Twitter” account: “[We appeal] to all parties to the conflict in Syria and those who have influence over them, to allow and facilitate access to basic services including health for children and families. This is the very minimum for human dignity.”

Last November, the United Nations and the “Red Crescent” admitted a single instalment of humanitarian aid to the camp, after the regime refused to allow its entry.

Since June, the al-Rukban has been suffering a suffocating siege, after the closer of the port connecting it with Jordan under a Russian pressure and the blockage of the al- Dumayr road by Assad’s forces.

A Russian plan has been lately discussed aiming at dismantling the al-Rukban camp, and Jordan has approved to cooperate with Moscow for evacuating it early in last October, while Russia seeks an American support.

In the al-Rukban camp, more than 50 thousand people live, the majority of whom are women and children, according to the “Syrian NGO Alliance.”

The Humanitarian “Response Coordination Group,” early last October, documented the death of 14 civilians due to inflating living conditions and healthcare status.

Two Children Die because of Healthcare Deterioration at Al-Rukban Camp