Middle East latest: UN migration agency head says interim Syria leaders recognize challenges ahead

The head of the U.N. migration agency says she is reassured by commitments she heard from Syria’s new caretaker government in meetings in Damascus, as the country seeks to rebuild after more than a half-century of rule under the Assad family

The head of the U.N. migration agency said she was reassured by commitments she heard from Syria’s new caretaker government in meetings in Damascus, as the country seeks to rebuild after more than a half-century of rule under the Assad family.

Amy Pope, director-general of the International Organization for Migration, said in a phone interview Wednesday that Syria’s new leaders “recognize the job they have ahead of them is enormous and that they need the support of the international community.”

IOM estimates about 100,000 people — many looking to return to their former homes — have entered Syria from neighboring countries since Dec. 8, the day former President Bashar Assad fled the country as opposition fighters swarmed into the capital.

“We are also seeing about 85,000 people come out” into Lebanon through established border crossing points, she said. “It’s a rough figure: There’s certainly people who cross informally and so they’re not counted.”

Most of those found to be leaving are Shiite Muslims, she said. The armed groups who took control of Syria are primarily from the country’s majority Sunni Muslim community, including Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the terrorist-designated group that led the coalition of armed opposition groups that drove Assad from power and into asylum in Russia.

“There’s no question to me that at this moment in time, they are looking for ways to make this work, to be more inclusive, to build partnerships across the international community, to build partnerships with other governments,” Pope said of the caretaker government. “It’s just going to be a question of whether they can deliver.”

IOM said Pope was one of the first heads of a U.N. agency to visit Syria since Assad’s ouster, and she met with unspecified members of the caretaker government on Tuesday, as well as U.N. officials and advocacy groups.

She reaffirmed the IOM's commitment to Syria. The organization has been providing assistance to people in the country since 2014 and is seeking $30 million in urgent aid funding for the next four months to try to help nearly 685,000 people in the northwest of the country.