AMMAN —
While global attention has moved away from Syria’s decade-long crisis, Syrian
refugees in Jordan are finding it harder to access the necessities of daily
life.
اضافة اعلان
Less food, less
education, worse healthcare, worse shelter; a recent report by the UNHCR found
that Syrian refugee families in Jordan living outside the camps are facing
greater challenges than they were before the coronavirus pandemic.
Last month, the
UNHCR published the preliminary results of its Vulnerability Assessment
Framework (VAF), a survey of the refugee situation carried out every two years.
The agency visited 4,546 Syrian refugee households with close to 23,000 people
over 16 weeks in 2021.
It also visited
Syrian refugees in the camps and non-Syrian refugees outside the camps who had
not been previously surveyed by VAF. The survey found that Syrian refugees
outside the camps were having a much harder time feeding themselves.
In 2018, a vast
majority of Syrian refugee families surveyed outside the camps — 88 percent —
had an “acceptable” diet. By 2021, that number had fallen to 55 percent.
Other aspects of
life deteriorated as well. A majority of Syrian refugee families outside the
camps surveyed in 2021 were found living with leaking roofs, in unsafe
conditions, or lacking windows and ventilation. And slightly over half reported
that they could not access healthcare when they needed it.
It was in sharp
contrast with 2018, when 62 percent of Syrian refugee families outside the
camps lived in “acceptable shelter conditions”, and only 38 percent could not
access needed healthcare.
Although the
massive camps at Zaatari and Azraq are the most visible symbols of Jordan’s
refugee crisis, a vast majority of Syrian refugees in the Kingdom live outside
the camps. In total, 541,643 Syrian refugees are registered with the UNHCR in
Jordanian cities and towns, a much greater number than the 131,309 people
living in the camps.
In a statement to
Jordan News, UNHCR press officer Lilly Carlisle
pointed to the coronavirus crisis as causing “an increase in vulnerability
among refugees in Jordan”.
“The majority of
refugees are earning an income from employment and continue to be self-reliant,
not dependent on humanitarian assistance,” she said.
“But this is not
enough to keep them out of poverty. As a result, debt among refugees has
skyrocketed, which is having a knock-on effect on their living conditions.”
The rate of Syrian
refugees in debt increased by 25 percent from 2018 to 2021, the UNHCR survey
found. The most common reason for going into debt was paying rent. The second
most common reason was healthcare.
“Many refugees are
paying their rent and bills on credit, but when these options run out, they
risk being evicted from their homes and having to move to poor-quality shelters
with leaking roofs and broken windows,” Carlisle explained.
The UNHCR found
that 18 percent of Syrian refugee families outside the camps had been
threatened with eviction in 2021, compared to only 8 percent in 2018.
Carlisle added
that “refugees in Jordan are able to access the national health system and
public hospitals at the Jordanian non-insured rate”, but even those costs are
“beyond their financial means”.
Despite all the
challenges, “refugees have shown remarkable resilience” throughout the
pandemic, Carlisle pointed out.
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