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UN: More than 130,000 have Fled Syria's Ghouta in Four Weeks

by Reuters

   GENEVA --

   The United Nations voiced alarm on Tuesday at "spiralling new
   displacement" from the Syrian enclave of eastern Ghouta, after more
   than 133,000 people were estimated to have fled in four weeks, and
   where U.N. aid agencies still do not have access.

   About 45,000 of those displaced are staying in eight collective
   shelters in the Damascus countryside. Roughly the same number of women,
   children and elderly men have left the overcrowded shelters after
   screening by government authorities.

   "We are aware of screening taking place as civilians are leaving
   eastern Ghouta, but as you know we are not part of current evacuation
   deals or its implementation," Andrej Mahecic, spokesman of the U.N.
   refugee agency UNHCR, told a briefing.