At HRC: International Relief Agencies Criticised By Volunteer Worker Over Lack Of Aid To Quake Victims In Northern Syria

Geneva – A volunteer relief worker involved in coordinating the humanitarian response to victims of the earthquake that struck northern Syria last month urged members of the Human Rights Council to take all possible steps to expedite aid delivery to affected areas.

In a statement delivered on behalf of Euro-Med Monitor at the 52nd session of the HRC, Syrian Ibrahim al-Sbeih said that, “The earthquake struck places inhabited by people who are the most vulnerable and afflicted by Syria’s 12-year-long conflict, including millions of displaced people who have fled death and live in extremely poor humanitarian conditions.” He expressed that local relief workers were dissatisfied with the delay of UN relief agencies and relevant countries in assisting local workers in providing aid and shelter to those affected by the quake.

“As relief workers,” al-Sbeih said, “we expected UN and international relief agencies to be the first responders to the disaster, moving quickly to provide what was needed to pull victims from the rubble and provide aid to survivors, but that did not happen.” He emphasised that “the first convoys of UN aid arrived eight days after the earthquake, when there was no hope of finding anyone alive under the rubble” and that “the quality of aid and the speed with which it was distributed was not commensurate with the massive scale of the humanitarian disaster”.

The deadly earthquake struck parts of southern Turkiye and central and northern Syria on 6 February, killing over 50,000 people, including nearly 4,500 in northern Syria, where millions of displaced people live in difficult humanitarian conditions. According to al-Sbeih, any delay or procrastination in response efforts “can never be justified”, as aid should have been delivered as soon as possible, regardless of any conventional considerations.

Full statement

Mr President,

I am Ibrahim al-Sbeih, a young Syrian man working to coordinate humanitarian response efforts in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake that struck northern Syria last February, killing and injuring thousands of people and leaving millions homeless.

The earthquake struck places inhabited by people who are the most vulnerable and afflicted by Syria’s 12-year-long conflict, including millions of displaced people who, according to Euro-Med Monitor, have fled death and live in extremely poor humanitarian conditions.

As relief workers, we expected the UN and international relief agencies to be the first responders to the disaster, moving quickly to provide what was needed to pull victims from the rubble and provide aid to survivors, but that did not happen. The first convoys of UN aid arrived eight days after the earthquake, when there was no hope of finding anyone alive under the rubble, and even then, the quality of aid and the speed with which it was distributed were not commensurate with the massive scale of the humanitarian disaster. During a time of great hardship, the people of northern Syria felt let down and abandoned by the international community; any delay and procrastination in response efforts can never be justified.

We call on all countries and relief agencies to increase the quantity and quality of humanitarian aid delivered to affected areas, and to take all necessary steps to alleviate the ongoing humanitarian crisis there.

Thank you.

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