Let’s get the facts straight and dig in (without getting into the politics of it all).
How many refugees do we have in Jordan?
Jordan is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention. However since 2011, the country has opened its doors to Syrians fleeing the devastation in their country. 2013 witnessed the most entries. As we say in colloquial , we did not “shorten” ourselves when it comes to our hospitality and welcoming the refugees.
Jordan is currently hosting 675,000 Syrian refugees1. Of those 675k, only 132k or 19% live in refugee camps (mainly Zaatari and Azraq camps). There is an additional 700,000 Syrians living in Jordan that are not officially registered as refugees and do not get any aid. In total, we have 1.3 million Syrians in Jordan according to government statistics.
Per capita basis, this makes Jordan 2nd to Lebanon as host to Syrian refugees.
Is the Response Plan well funded?
Since 2011, the International Community stepped up and provided all the needed assistance to hosting countries. In fact, compared to other countries in the world, the Syrian response plan is one of the best funded.
From 2014 until 2016, Jordan received over $3.8 billion (nearly $1 billion per year).
In 2021, Jordan received $611 million. That’s 50% of the of the response plan (excluding budget support requirements).
Comparing it with another hosting country such as Uganda, which is hosting 1.5 million refugees from Sudan, DRC and Burundi, they received a fraction of that amount from foreign donors.
Yet we keep hearing in the local media that the international community is letting us down and this begs the question: what is the purpose of these statements? To blame our woes on the refugees? Or is it a symptom of dyscalculia and not looking at the numbers correctly? Thankfully, it is not a xenophobic issue as it goes against our hospitable nature as Jordanians as shown in a recent public poll2.
Recently in Brussels, the International Community actually exceeded expectations with pledges made for the Syria crisis3.
From Crisis to Opportunity
Do you remember that Friends episode? The one where Ross gets married in London and his parents decide to split the bill with the bride’s parents only to find out the future in-laws managed to sneak in extra house renovation expenses unrelated to the wedding?
Is this what it feels like when Jordan goes and asks for donors to cover some extra expenses in relation to the Jordan Response Plan4?
Joking aside, the needs of the refugees far exceed the funding available. In fact, the international community (including the UN + NGOs) and the governments have reached a middle ground on a lot of aspects and worked out solutions to mitigate the impact of hosting 1.3 million Syrians in the country (especially the strain on the water and energy sector).
First, the arrival and expansion of NGOs in Jordan since 2011 has been a boon to employment to the local market: a quick glance at the job market place website Akhtaboot will show that most if not all hirings in the private sector came from NGOs with compensation being higher than other private companies (however some smaller NGOs are suffering from the Defense Law and the cutting of funding from COVID).
Second, of the Jordan Response Plan $2.4 billion requested, $950 million (of course not all will be funded as that will depend on the urgency and impact) was requested for direct assistance to the government’s budget to offset the burden on infrastructure of hosting the refugees. These capital expenditures will go to projects (in the water, infrastructure and energy sector, or setting up medical clinics) that will both help the Syrians as well as the local community.
Lastly, the EU came up with an innovative solution: Rules of Origin. Since 2016, Jordan and EU have signed an agreement to allow local companies that hire a certain percentage of refugees to export to the EU at preferential tariff rates. This has allowed Syrians to get work permits and get a dignified source of income. The original idea was not to displace Jordanian workers and replacing them with refugees. The idea was to increase revenues through exports by increasing the labour force. However this has not reached its full potential (yet).
Let’s count our blessings we weren’t abandoned and focus on the economic opportunities such as the EU rules of origin to prop up our production and exports and the influx of a large pool of labour.
We need to move away from thinking of refugees as a burden in need of humanitarian assistance (although the vulnerable will still require it) and harness this golden opportunity by also giving them one.
Further recommended reading:
https://wrmcouncil.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Jordan-Syrian-Refugees-WRMC.pdf
https://data.unhcr.org/en/documents/download/93708
https://www.unhcr.org/jo/17147-unhcr-survey-reveals-positive-jordanian-attitude-towards-refugees.html
https://www.eeas.europa.eu/sites/default/files/documents/20220510%20Pledging%20Statement_Financial%20Annex_B6C%20%28final%29_0.docx
http://www.jrp.gov.jo/files/NewNarrat.pdf