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Ammon News - by Muath Freij/ Jordan Times

AMMAN — The government needs international support to continue providing humanitarian services to Syrian refugees, according to the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) delegation in Jordan.

“The Jordanian government needs support first from the UN, and then the UN from the international community. So they need partners,” ICRC Jordan Chief Catherine Gendre told The Jordan Times in a recent interview.

On the ground, the task of humanitarian actors in Syria is getting more and more complex, she noted, as they have to deal with several political factions now.

“As the situation in Syria is evolving because of the presence of many armed groups, the task of the ICRC is increasingly complex because it has to deal with several parties,” she said.

“Now, you have a lot of fighting everywhere. You don’t have a fixed frontline where you can easily pass from the government side to the opposition side,” she noted.

Gendre said the ICRC does not have security guarantees.

“The ICRC does not have armed escorts. For us, our protection is the respect of the emblem,” she said, adding that they obtain the concerned parties’ permission to provide humanitarian support through dialogue.

“When we put on the emblem and go somewhere, we expect to be respected and accepted by the parties,” Gendre noted.

She explained that when the unrest in Syria started, the ICRC provided services to visit those arrested and assess the needs of those who were wounded, so they initiated a dialogue on this issue with the authorities.

“People who have relatives arrested in Syria can approach us... We may help them, in coordination with our colleagues based in Syria,” she added.

The head of the ICRC delegation said that they were also involved with various Syrian groups in Jordan, mainly the defectors.

“We do assist the authorities in the Mafraq camp for defectors because this situation falls under our humanitarian mandate and because there are needs to be met,” she said.

“We help improve the water and sanitation situation, and provide them with items such as mats, pillows, blankets and educational material,” the relief official noted.

She said the ICRC tries to re-establish family links with relatives of refugees who are still in Syria, enabling them to have a three-minute phone call with their relatives.

But she stressed that the conversations are about family issues and not political.

Gendre said the Red Crescent in Jordan is their mutual partner.

“We have a big budget to support the Jordan Red Crescent Society in their efforts... What they do is very important.”

Gendre said part of the ICRC’s mandate is to visit people who are detained in connection with conflict or a situation of violence.

“The dialogue we have with detainees and concerned authorities is confidential; this is a world-wide policy of the ICRC,” she stressed.

Noting that the ICRC’s responsibility is towards victims of conflict, Gendre said the relief organisation is more involved in Syria than in Jordan.

She expressed hope that the Geneva II conference, which is expected to bring together international actors and all parties of the Syrian conflict later this year, will prove fruitful, adding that many see it as the last chance for a political way out of the conflict.

“So far, there is no political solution, it is stuck. No one wants to [venture] into Syria, militarily speaking. All the attention is on the shoulder of the humanitarian actors.”