Syrian refugees in Jordan

Syrian refugees in Jordan : a Reality Check

How can we explain the Syrian crisis ?

Vidéo

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We will study the issues that Syrian refugees have to face nowadays throughout the case of Jordan that is a perfect illustration of a country directly concerned by the outbreak of the war and by the massive wave of Syrian immigration triggered off by this tragedy. We will first deal with the current Jordan situation and Syrian refugee status. Then, we will tackle the relative effectiveness of the response from Jordan. And finally, we will try to find some solutions to improve the situation of these refugees.

1. The current Jordan situation and Syrian refugees status

Initially, lack of freedoms and economic woes (misère) fuelled resentment of the Syrian government, and public anger was inflamed by the harsh crackdown on protesters. Successful uprisings (révoltes) in Tunisia and Egypt energised and gave hope to Syrian pro-democracy activists. Many Islamist movements were also strongly opposed to the Assad's' rule.

In 1982, Bashar's father, Hafez al-Assad, ordered a military crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood in Hama, which killed between 10,000-40,000 people and flattened (écraser) much of the city.

Although the initial protests in 2011 were mostly non-sectarian, armed conflict led to the emergence of starker sectarian divisions. Minority religious groups tend to support the Assad government, while the overwhelming (accablant) majority of opposition fighters are Sunni Muslims. And, over time, protestations are still hanging, becoming a civil, proxy and interfaith war between numerous warring parties (bélligérants) : Assad’s government, the Islamic State,Free Syrian Army, Russia, Iran, Hezbollah, Dempcratic Union Party…...

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimated that the number of refugees and asylum seekers in Jordan would reach a total of 1.1 million by December 2015, including 57,140 Iraqis and 937,830 Syrians, based on trends and registration data from early 2014. Despite its scarce resources, Jordan is considered as a welcoming country and has provided refugees with health, security, educational services, and offered the land on which the two Syrian refugee camps of Azraq and Zaatari were built.  However, Jordan lacks a clear legal framework to deal with refugees and asylum seekers.

Article 211 of the Jordanian Constitution provides that “political refugees shall not be extradited on account of their political beliefs or for their defense of liberty.”  However, it does not appear that Jordan has enacted any legislation that regulates the status of refugees, including those who seek asylum for political reasons.

Although Jordan claims to have an open-border policy, some elements are contradicting this positive vision of the welcoming of refugees.

In the absence of special legislation addressing their status, refugees and asylum seekers in Jordan are subject to the Law 24 of 1973 concerning Residency and Foreigners’ Affairs whiches applies to all foreigners without distinction between refugees and nonrefugees.  

Article 2 defines a foreigner as anyone who does not have Jordanian nationality, the law  but does not define them as a separate category.  A 2015 report by the International Labor Organization (ILO) confirms the lack of adequate legal protection for refugees in Jordan, stating as follows:

Jordanian law makes limited references to asylum seekers and refugees.  Despite having the highest ratio of refugees to citizens in the world, Jordan has not signed the Refugee Convention of 1951 or its subsequent 1967 Protocol.  In practice, Jordan avoids the official recognition of refugees under its domestic laws and prefers to refer to Syrian refugees as ‘visitors’, ‘irregular guests’, ‘Arab brothers’ or simply ‘guests’, which has no legal meaning under domestic laws, and was the same for Iraqi refugees under the MOU.  

Several concerns are usually cited over Jordan’s non-signatory status, including the politically and socially complex—and yet unresolved—Palestinian refugee issue, popular sentiment against refugee integration, lack of resources and capacity to provide for refugees, and misinformation about the perceived social and economic burden of refugees and related questions of national security.

II. The limited response from Jordan

This influx of refugees causes various problems for Jordan which could explain the swing of the Kingdom on welcoming issues...

• Because of the growth of the population, there is a huge demand on schools, food, water and resources that cannot be fulfilled by the Jordanian government. The major problem concerns the housing and rent prices have incredibly decreased since the massive arrival of Syrian refugees, due to the growing demand on housing.

• Furthermore, the Syrians who can’t afford an abode (= domicile) are living in shelters in very poor conditions. Thereby, growing urban refugees communities have been constituting around the center of cities. And we can’t deny an informal tented settlement with a really low quality of living, lacking of sanitary services and food and education services that necessitate the Ministry of Interior Service Card which can’t be delivered without the ASC.

• Besides, the threat of terrorism is also a key question to explain the fear of Jordan to keep their borders open. Indeed, Jordan participates to the fight against IS and Al-Nusra with an international coalition and this commitment can lead to terrorist reprisals. Moreover, several attempts of infiltration by terrorist on the border have been reported like on 18 December 2016.

Marginalization (work and health care)

Those problems led the Jordanian government to tighten ( renforcer ) their policy about refugees. That leads to a marginalization of these refugees reinforced by the fact that they can’t work unless the employer pay a fee and gives a proof that the refugee has skills that cannot be found in a Jordanian worker. This policy is a way to reduce labour market competition in the country because it reduces the number of workers that could compete with Jordan workers and therefore reduce the wages. Thus, the refugees are resigned to illegal employment.

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