UAE Red Crescent members receive Syrian refugees at the new Mrigeb Al Fuhud refugee camp, 20km east of the city of Zarqa, yesterday.
AMMAN/Ankara: Jordan opened a second camp for Syrian refugees yesterday after the United Nations said the number seeking shelter in the kingdom is expected to triple by the end of the year.
A first group of 106 refugees, who were among 1,306 who crossed the border during the night, were moved to the new Mrigeb Al Fuhud camp, government spokesman for Syrian refugee affairs, Anmar Hmud said.
The 13,000-acre (5,200-hectare) camp, some 80km northeast of Amman, has 750 caravans, a hospital and a school and can take up to 5,500 people.
The Jordan Dinar 7m ($9.8m) camp was paid for by the UAE.
“It will mainly receive widows, orphans and families who do not have single men,” Hmud said. “There are plans to expand the camp to house 30,000 people.”
Jordan opened a first camp at Zaatari in the desert north of the kingdom in July last year. It now houses more than 150,000 Syrian refugees. The UN estimates that around 385,500 Syrians have sought refuge in Jordan, including nearly a quarter of a million children. A UN spokeswoman said last week that UN agencies expect the number to surge to around 1.2 million by December — equivalent to about one-fifth of Jordan’s total population. The UN children’s agency Uniced, which provides safe water, sanitation, vaccines and education in the Zaatari camp, says it is facing a massive funding shortfall which may force it to cut back on desperately needed services.
The agency says it has received just $12m of the $57m it had appealed for to fund its Jordan operations this year.
Turkey building camps for Christians, Kurds
Meanwhile, Turkey is building two camps along its far southeastern border with Syria to house a growing number of refugees from Syrian minority groups, mainly Assyrian Christians as well as ethnic Kurds, a government official said yesterday.
More 250,000 Syrians fleeing civil war in their homeland have registered in Turkey, most of whom stay in 17 camps along the 900km border, although Turkish leaders say the total number of refugees is closer to 400,000. Those who have fled are predominantly ethnic Arabs from Syria’s Sunni Muslim majority, most of whom largely support the rebels fighting to overthrow President Bashar Al Assad, who himself belongs to the Alawite minority of Shia Islam.
Apart from housing refugees, Turkey, which also has a Sunni majority, has thrown its weight behind the rebels, giving them sanctuary, although it denies arming them. This has drawn accusations of sectarianism levelled at the government from Assad as well as Turkish minority groups and opposition parties.
The two tented camps, to be completed in less than a month, are being built in Midyat, a town in southeastern Mardin province some 50km from the Syrian border, the official from Turkey’s foreign ministry said.
AFP/Reuters
