/ 21 November 2013

Jordanians’ hospitality is wearing thin

The Zaatari refugee camp
The Zaatari refugee camp, near the Syrian border, costs $500?000 a day to run. (Manu Brabo, AP)

An array of shops lines what has been nicknamed the Champs-Élysées, the main thoroughfare of white tents at the Zaatari refugee camp, which has mushroomed into, in effect, Jordan’s fifth-largest city since the middle of last year.

With entrepreneurial zeal, Syrians have – with their own or borrowed money – set up shop in the camp. Vegetable shops abound, selling brinjals, potatoes and cucumbers. Butchers sell slabs of meat, which hang in glass refrigeration units. Clothes and footwear are available.

There are rotisseries with chickens on spits and falafel sellers. There is even a pet shop selling birdcages. There is everything a high street would have, except these shops are in a camp of about 100 000 refugees, half of them under 18.

About an hour’s drive from Amman, Jordan’s capital, people in Zaatari initially expressed resentment about the camp and protests were a regular occurrence. The mood is calmer now as residents have settled into a routine and services have improved. About 300 tankers ship in 4 000 litres of water every day, and another 200 tankers take out the dirty water.

The camp has electricity and residents have tapped into the grid to divert it to individual homes and shops. About 40% of the homes have televisions. There are three schools – although attendance is low – and at least two hospitals. There are also plans to lay down pipes so each household has water.

It costs roughly $500 000 a day to run Zaatari and Jordanians – who have until now been hospitable and generous – are beginning to grumble about the pressure on their schools and hospitals from the influx, and donors are seen as favouring refugees.

Abdullah al-Khattab, the governor of Mafraq, spoke at length about the strain on his area, already one of the poorest regions in Jordan.

He told Alan Duncan, Britain’s international development minister: “There is a lack of water, more rubbish; there are pressures on the electricity supply and the health system; our classrooms are overcrowded. The water tankers are damaging the road network going to and from the camp. Syrians are taking jobs from us.”

Jordanian nongovernmental organisations and aid workers agree that the burden of supporting more than 500 000 Syrian refugees is stretching resources to the limit. Syrians are beginning to fan out across the country and the region – to Morocco, Algeria and even Yemen.

After a visit to Zaatari and a school run by the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, Duncan announced an allocation of £11-million to several relief groups. The money will take the international development department’s contribution to Unicef in the region to more than £30-million.

Although Zaatari appears a vibrant and orderly place, Syrians are adamant they do not want to make it their permanent home.

One 23-year-old man, a former police officer and a member of the Free Syrian Army, lost his left leg to a bomb. He was practising walking on a new prosthetic leg with the help of a cane at a physiotherapy centre.

He said: “Of course I want to go back. I want to go back to my family and to the Free Syrian Army.” – © Guardian News & Media 2013