Red Cross was granted with access to the Syrian prisoners

The International Committee of the Red Cross says its delegates, for the first time, have been allowed to visit people detained by the
Syrian authorities. Access to the prisoners was granted during a visit by the ICRC president to Syria, the Voice of America says.

The organization says delegates visited detainees in the Damascus Central Prison, in the suburb of Adra.

“The Syrian authorities have granted the I.C.R.C. access to a place of detention for the first time,” the group’s president, Jakob Kellenberger, said in a statement issued at the end of a two-day visit to Damascus. “Initially, we will have access to persons detained by the Ministry of the Interior, and we are hopeful that we will soon be able to visit all detainees,” the New Yourk Times reports.

Spokeswoman Carla Haddad Mardini tells VOA this first-ever visit to detainees in Syria is a significant step forward. But, she adds, it is just the first step.