UN Calls for Earthquake Aid Access to Syria As Rescues Wind down in Turkey

With only one border from Turkey accessible, the dead toll from the devastating earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria has risen to almost 35,000 as UN humanitarian workers press for increased aid access to the rebel-controlled northwest of Syria.

The focus shifted to the humanitarian situation in Syria on Monday as search and rescue teams started to wind down their work amid decreasing chances of recovering survivors from the rubble. According to some estimates, millions of people there are homeless as a result of the earthquake and the protracted civil war.

The complex arrangements for humanitarian aid delivery to the Syrian territory, which operate under a mandate from the UN security council through the Bab al-Hawa border crossing, are at the heart of the problems aggravating the crisis in the rebel-controlled province of Idlib.

There has long been pressure to open other crossings to go to Idlib, but Russia and China have consistently blocked such initiatives, arguing that doing so would violate the sovereignty of the Bashar al-Assad administration in Damascus.

António Guterres, the UN secretary general, is pleading with the security council to approve the establishment of additional assistance crossing points between Turkey and Syria, but it is uncertain if this will override prior reservations.

However, officials claimed that no draught resolution had yet been distributed before to a security council meeting to discuss the matter.

The hardline Hayat al-Tahjr al-Sham group's reluctance to accept aid brought through Damascus since the earthquake has further complicated the situation, despite warnings that survivors surviving outside in winter circumstances face a secondary calamity.

The confirmed death toll from the 7.8-magnitude tremor a week ago is now 35,224, according to officials and medical professionals, who also reported that 31,643 deaths occurred in Turkey and 3,581 in Syria.

Underling the scale of the crisis, the UN’s head of emergency relief, Martin Griffiths, acknowledged that humanitarian efforts to Syria were failing.

“We have so far failed the people in north-west Syria. They rightly feel abandoned. Looking for international help that hasn’t arrived,” he said in a tweet on Sunday before a visit to Damascus.

“My duty and our obligation is to correct this failure as fast as we can. That’s my focus now,” he added during a visit to the border area.

Speaking separately to Sky News, he said: “We are also looking for authorisation from the security council to open up a couple of extra crossing points to maximise the volume of supplies we get through to the people of the north-west.

“Frankly it’s an open and shut case on humanitarian terms, why we need those extra crossing points now to save lives and to provide some sort of assistance to the people as they come into the post-rescue phase.

“So I hope it’ll go through. I think we’ll find out in the next couple of days.”

So far only a few dozen trucks have crossed over Bab al-Hawa into north-west Syria carrying aid that had already been scheduled for delivery before the quake.

The director general of the World Health Organization met Assad in Damascus on Sunday and said the Syrian leader had voiced readiness for more aid border crossings.

“He was open to considering additional cross-border access points for this emergency,” Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters.

He said the WHO was still waiting for approval from rebel-held areas before going in.