Jordan second largest refugee host worldwide — UNHCR

AMMAN — Jordan is the second largest refugee-hosting country in the world when compared to the size of its population, according to a new report by the United Nations Higher Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).

The UNHCR’s Mid-Year Trends 2016 report, posted on its website, indicted that Lebanon was the first refugee-hosting country in the world when compared to the size of its population and Turkey was in the 3rd place, while Chad was in the 4th place.

According to the report, out of 1,000 per capita of the population in Jordan 89 are refugees.

Commenting on the report, Government Spokesperson Mohammad Momani said "Jordan takes pride in its humanitarian role", noting that it has shouldered "more than its responsibilities in this regard".

"Jordan is not getting enough aid to deal with the consequences of the influx of refugees," Momani, who is also minister of state for media affairs, told The Jordan Times, stressing that the Kingdom has reached the "saturation point".

“We thank the international community for the support, which reached 60 per cent of needed aid, yet we call for more,” the minister said.

In Lebanon, 173 out of each 1,000 per capita are refugees, while the rate is 35 out of 1,000 per capita in Turkey and 27 out of 1,000 per capita in Chad, according to the report.

According to official figures by the Planning and International Cooperation Ministry, the indirect economic impact of the Syrian crisis on Jordan between 2013 and 2016 has reached $12.37 billion.

Conflict, persecution and violence newly uprooted at least 3.2 million people in the first half of last year, and low- and middle-income countries played the greatest role in sheltering the world’s displaced, the report indicated.

In the first half of last year, 1.7 million people were newly displaced within their own country, while 1.5 million had crossed an international border, it showed.

More than half the new refugees in the first half of 2016 fled Syria’s conflict, with most staying in the immediate region — Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt. Other sizeable groups fled Iraq, Burundi, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eritrea, Somalia, South Sudan and Sudan.

Of all countries, Turkey sheltered the greatest number of refugees, hosting 2.8 million by mid-2016. It was followed by Pakistan (1.6 million), Lebanon (1 million), Iran (978,000), Ethiopia (742,700), Jordan (691,800), Kenya (523,500), Uganda (512,600), Germany (478,600) and Chad (386,100).

“Today we face not so much a crisis of numbers but of cooperation and solidarity — especially given that most refugees stay in the countries neighbouring their war-torn homelands,” said UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi.

“The biggest contributors [to] providing a safe haven to the world’s uprooted people are poorer communities,” Grandi said in the report.

According to the latter economic measure, eight out of ten of the top countries hosting refugees are in Africa, with the remaining two in the Middle East. Lebanon and Jordan rank among the top ten hosting countries across all categories — absolute numbers, economic contribution and per capita.

At mid-2016, Syrians continued to be the largest group of refugees worldwide, making up 32 per cent (5.3 million out of 16.5 million) of the global total under UNHCR’s mandate.