AMMAN —
The Zaatari camp, temporary home to over
80,000 Syrian refugees, has recorded some 25,000 births since its establishment
10 years ago until June this year, according to information posted on the
UNHCR’s website.
اضافة اعلان
Children under
the age of 18 make up about half of the camp’s population, according to
UNHCR’s
Filippo Grandi.
According to the
UN refugee agency’s website, few of these children went beyond the camp’s
boundaries, receiving health care in the camp, and education through the
Ministry of Education schools there.
The camp was
established in July 2012, when 450 Syrians fleeing the fighting in their
country crossed the desert across the border into Jordan. Later that day, they
became the first residents of the then-opened Zaatari refugee camp.
In just a year,
the camp’s population rose to 120,000, and the tents that provided a temporary
roof for the refugees in the first weeks and months were replaced by thousands
of metal shelters. Roads, schools, and hospitals were built to meet the needs
of the people living there, and shops and small businesses began to appear, run
by ambitious refugees.
A decade after
the camp’s opening, its population has stabilized at about 80,000; it is still
considered the largest refugee camp in the
Middle East, one of the largest in
the world, and a symbol of the protracted Syrian refugee crisis.
In 2013, the
tents were replaced with fixed prefabricated shelters, “caravans”, numbering
about 25,000 and having a life span of six to eight years, which means that
most of them are now in need of urgent repair. According to a recent
assessment, more than 70 percent of shelters now have substandard walls,
floors, and ceilings.
With regard to
health care, primary health clinics are deployed in the camp to treat patients
who reach them through the existing ambulance service. The clinics provide
about 25,000 medical consultations per month, while the most serious cases are
referred to hospitals in neighboring towns and cities.
The solar power
station in Zaatari started operation in 2017 to provide clean energy and
electricity to refugee families. At first, its goal was to generate electricity
and provide energy for about 12 hours a day, which contributed to changing the
camp’s lifestyle, as markets started being able to work at night, and streets
became safer after dark, but in recent months, UNHCR had to cut electricity
supply to nine hours a day to manage costs as demand for electricity rises.
Employment
remains the most prominent challenge for refugees in the camp, as only 4.8
percent of its residents hold work permits. Work permits are granted to Syrian
refugees in Jordan for employment in any sector available to non-Jordanians,
including agriculture, construction, services, and basic industries.
As the effects
of the pandemic continue to pressure Jordan’s economy, the lack of job
opportunities for refugees and Jordanians alike has pushed more camp residents
to take high-risk jobs or fall in to debt. Today two-thirds of refugee families
in Zaatari report being in debt.
Data collected by UNHCR also shows that the majority
of camp residents still want to return to Syria in the future, and that most of
them believe that it is still not safe to do so at the present time. The
longing for their country is still strong, even among the younger generation
who have not seen their native land.
Traditions passed on
over generations help preserve Syrian heritage in the camp, thanks to the
strong community ties that have developed there over the past 10 years.
Read more National news
Jordan News
.jpg)
.jpg)
