Kilani: Syrian refugee crisis biggest challenge in Jordan's history

Refugees have played a key role in the 92-year history of Jordan, bringing business, personnel and expertise - and some challenges for the Hashemite rulers.

In 1967, around 250,000 Palestinians crossed the border into Jordan, fleeing the advancing Israeli army. Roughly 700,000 Iraqis left the country for Jordan following the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Whenever there has been a war in the Levant, Jordan has provided a temporary, or sometimes permanent, base for refugees - and the ongoing Syrian civil war is no exception.

Saleh al-Kilani, the interior ministry's refugee coordinator believes that the ongoing Syrian refugee crisis is one of the most critical challenges for Jordan and says that many in the country "fear" the Syrians won't return to Syria even when the situation inside the country eventually stabilises.

Although there are 620,000 registered Syrians in Jordan, Kilani puts the real figure at closer to 1.5 million, and says that the strains on the economy are proving to be a much bigger challenge for the kingdom than the Palestinian influx.

"The Syrians were rich in their country but they have become poor while living as refugees," he said. "They could meet their basic needs at home because Syria used to be self-sufficient. But they weren't able to bring any of their wealth with them when they left."

The majority of Palestinians were considered Jordanians by virtue of the 1950 Unification of the Two Banks agreement.

Part of the reason that the hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees who came to the country between the 1948 Nakba and the 1967 war did not have a "disastrous" impact on Jordan was because they came during a time of special economic and social circumstances.

The fact that the majority of Palestinians were considered Jordanians by virtue of the 1950 Unification of the Two Banks agreement made it much easier for Jordan to absorb the newcomers, Kilani said.

"As for Iraq, the majority of them were rich and the vast majority of them treated Jordan as a place of temporary residence before obtaining asylum in European countries as they did not think Jordan was a place they could live permanently," he said.

"The rich Iraqi refugees arrived, and they helped some of the economic sectors - such as the real estate sector - recover."

Kilani said a new global strategy is needed to tackle the crisis, now that Syrian refugees are relying heavily on support from their host countries, many of which are themselves economically dependent on aid.

"It is a crisis for both the Middle East and the whole world, it is not just a crisis for Syria's neighbouring countries," he said.

Al-Araby al-Jadeed has learnt that a committee has been formed in Jordan to deal with the refugee crisis with a five-year plan drawn up to help cope with the crisis. 

This article is an edited translation from our Arabic edition.