The Director General of the International Organisation for Migration, Ms Amy Pope, has called for an urgent need to “re-evaluate” sanctions impacting the war-ravaged Syria.

Pope, in a statement on Friday, said Syria was in no position to take back millions of Syrians following the fall of the Assad regime, stressing on the need to re-evaluate sanctions impacting the country.

“We are not promoting large-scale returns; the communities frankly are just not ready to absorb the people who are displaced and would come home…it will overwhelm the country. Many have returned to find their homes reduced to rubble,” she added.

Speaking in Geneva shortly after returning from Damascus where she held talks with representatives of the caretaker authorities, Pope described how 14 years of war had destroyed “hospitals, schools, community centres” and much else.

She added, “Rebuilding homes is just one part of the solution, but (Syrians) also need access to healthcare and essential services to feel secure and lay the foundations for recovery.”

More than half of Syria’s population has been displaced, some 16.7 million people need humanitarian assistance and well over six million Syrian refugees have sought shelter abroad.

“The needs for funding – both financial resources, political resources – are going to be enormous,” Ms Pope added.

She stated that IOM would be part of any effort to help address the situation there.

”This is included potentially at an upcoming Syria reconstruction conference planned by the French Government in January. And yet the task of rebuilding and investing in Syria following the overthrow of the Assad regime by Hayat-Tahrir al-Sham fighters and others, remains complicated by sanctions imposed by the United States and the European Union. This followed the violent repression of pro-democracy protests in 2011 that escalated into civil war,” Mr Pope added.

Echoing that appeal, IOM described the impact of sanctions in Syria, where “people do not have access to cash…they do not have access to credit.”

Ms Pope said, “Goods are exchanged rather than purchased and salaries “are extremely low and often insufficient to meet their most basic needs. So, to rebuild the situation, there will be a need to re-evaluate those sanctions.”

(NAN)