7 Egyptians retrieved from Ghouta shelters: Foreign Ministry

CAIRO - 27 May 2018: The Egyptian Embassy in Syria managed Saturday to retrieve seven Egyptians from shelter camps in Damascus where Ghouta’s displaced people stay, following intensive communication with the Syrian authorities.

Egypt's Charge D'Affaires in Damascus, Mohamed Tharwat, said Saturday that he received Ahmed Mahmoud Moussa, who was retrieved from Adra camp in Damascus, in addition to Tarek Abdel Maguid, who was retrieved from another camp in the city, along with his mother, sister, children and his Syrian wife.



According to a statement by the Egyptian Ministry Foreign Affairs on Facebook, the Egyptian Embassy in Damascus is taking the required measures to return the retrieved Egyptians to the homeland.

The Egyptian law grants the Egyptian man's foreigner wife the right to acquire the Egyptian nationality beside her original nationality, following the permission of the Interior Ministry.

The Syrian war which started in March 2011 has killed more than half a million people and driven more than half the population from their homes due to clashes between Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime and rebels.

The humanitarian crisis in Syria is worse this year than ever before in the country’s seven-year-old civil war, a United Nations official said earlier in May.

Eastern Ghouta had been the largest rebel-held pocket near the capital Damascus, but came back under government control in mid-April after a fierce offensive. Syrian President Assad has vowed to take back every inch of Syria.


People walk with their belongings as they flee the rebel-held town of Hammouriyeh, in the village of Beit Sawa, eastern Ghouta, Syria. REUTER

The number of people designated by the U.N. as living in besieged areas has fallen dramatically this year to stand at 11,100, after the Syrian government regained control of almost all rebel-held pockets around the capital Damascus.

But 2.05 million people in need of humanitarian assistance still live in hard-to-reach areas, the U.N. said.

On June 24, Chargé d'affaires of the Egyptian Embassy in Damascus Tharwat said, "any role or help from the international powers regarding settling the Syrian crises will be welcomed."

“We believe that the Syrian crises will not come to an end, but through using dialogue and communication,” Tharwat said in statements to Syrian Al-Watan newspaper. He added that Egypt is backing all the attempts to solve the crisis whether through Geneva or Astana dialogues.