Jordan
Becomes A Doubtful Refuge
By Dahr Jamail &
Ali al-Fadhily
31 January, 2007
Inter
Press Service
AMMAN, Jan 29 (IPS)
- Hundreds of thousands have fled the violence in Iraq to seek refuge
in Jordan, but refugees are now beginning to find its borders closing.
Jordan and Syria are the
only two countries where fleeing Iraqis can hope to find shelter. Western
countries have shut their doors to Iraqi nationals - even to refugees.
And now much the same is
happening with Jordan too.
"I had major eye surgery
in Jordan, but my doctor told me it failed and so I need to have it
re-operated," Ahmad Khalaf of Saqlawiya, 62 km west of Baghdad
told IPS. "I arrived at the Iraqi-Jordanian crossing point with
my medical reports and a letter from the hospital in Jordan demanding
my arrival in Amman on a certain date in order to remedy the damage
of the previous operation."
Khalaf found what tens of
thousands of Iraqis are now finding when they attempt to enter Jordan.
"The Jordanian boarder authorities turned me back without telling
me why, leaving me to face the unknown."
The UN High Commissioner
for Refugees (UNHCR) reports that 100,000 Iraqis are fleeing the country
every month. UNHCR estimates that approximately 700,000 Iraqis are currently
living in Jordan and another 600,000 in Syria -- although many experts
believe the real numbers are higher, given the numbers leaving every
month.
The UNHCR estimates also
that there are more than 1.5 million internally displaced people within
Iraq itself.
Several Iraqis told IPS that
Jordanian authorities had shut their doors tight since the day Saddam
Hussein was executed. Many believe this was requested by the Iraqi government.
Border authorities in Jordan
have been getting progressively tougher over recent months.
"When Prime Minister
(Nouri) al-Maliki visited Jordan last year, Jordanian authorities became
stricter, and half of those who intended to cross the border were refused
entry," a grocery merchant who usually buys his merchandise from
Jordan told IPS. "After (Iraqi Minister of Interior) Jawad Bolani
visited Jordan near the end of 2006, they practically rejected 95 percent
of Iraqis."
Earlier in 2006 Jordan shut
its border to Iraqi men between the ages of 17 and 35, as well as to
a growing number of Palestinian refugees who had been living in Iraq
under the protection of former president Saddam Hussein. Most Palestinians
living in Iraq have been evicted by Shia death squads. The massive influx
of Iraqis into Jordan before border controls were tightened has severely
strained the infrastructure of Jordan, which was already suffering economically.
Schools and hospitals in particular have felt the weight of hundreds
of thousands of new residents.
"Our small country cannot
afford to take in more Iraqis," 30-year-old Jordanian Ahmad Trawne
from Amman told IPS. "We sympathise with our Iraqi brothers, but
they are now a burden on our poor country."
Jordanian citizens are complaining
that rich Iraqi immigrants have brought inflation to Jordanian markets.
The real estate business has flourished, but prices have increased to
levels that make it difficult for most Jordanians to buy or even rent
properties in central areas of capital Amman.
Areas like the Gardens, Shmaissani
and western Amman saw an almost 200 percent increase in value in 2006.
Prices of food and basic services have also risen considerably.
Nevertheless, many Iraqis
still feel it is the duty of Jordanians to allow in refugees.
"This country was built
by our money," a 60-year-old Iraqi teacher in Amman told IPS. "Saddam
gave Jordan free oil and opened the Iraqi borders for them, and now
they are not allowing us to live in their country. We are not asking
them for any financial help because all Iraqis bring their own money
with them. Many sold their properties in Iraq so that they could live
in dignity."
Iraqis who fail to cross
the border are forced to go back because there are no hotels near the
border. They cannot travel inside Iraq after sunset for fear of U.S.
patrols, so they have to stay overnight in parking lots of highway restaurants,
where it can be very cold at night.
It is becoming increasingly
difficult also to find room for the hundreds of thousands moving to
another location within Iraq. The UNHCR issued a warning Jan. 9 that
the scale of internal displacement of Iraqis was beyond the capacity
of humanitarian agencies, including the UNHCR. It declared that a humanitarian
crisis looms in Iraq beyond that anticipated by aid agencies at the
beginning of the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.
The UNHCR added that the
longer the displacement continues, the more difficult it would become
as the internally displaced and their host communities in Iraq run out
of resources.
(Ali al-Fadhily is our Baghdad correspondent, recently in Amman. Dahr
Jamail is our specialist writer who has spent eight months reporting
from inside Iraq and has been covering the Middle East for several years.)
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