Daily Syrian refugee influx continues as gov't committed to holistic response — Hammad

AMMAN — The government is dealing with Syrian refugee issues from a holistic approach, coordinating with all the concerned entities, Interior Minister Salameh Hammad said Monday.

At a meeting in Amman with UNHCR Director for Middle East and North Africa Operations Amin Awad, Hammad said Jordan continues to do all it can to assist Syrian refugees and mitigate their suffering, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

Discussions at the meeting, attended by UNHCR Representative to Jordan Andrew Harper, also covered the repercussions of the refugee crisis on the Kingdom. 

The Interior Ministry, Hammad said, coordinates with the Labour Ministry on issuing work permits for Syrian refugees.

Violators were given a three-month grace period to rectify their statuses according to regulations, the minister added.

He said the Syrian crisis has placed pressure on the Kingdom's already limited resources, noting that Jordan receives refugees on a daily basis, transferring them to camps, especially the Azraq camp, which is now receiving a large number of new arrivals.

The camp, some 100km east of Amman and 20km west of the town of Azraq in Zarqa Governorate, is currently home to 36,225 refugees, according to the UNHCR's latest available figures.

Awad commended the Jordanian role in hosting refugees despite the prevailing economic challenges.

On Monday, the army said Border Guards received 302 Syrian refugees in the previous 24 hours, transferring them to camps and shelters, and treating the wounded, according to Petra.

Out of the Kingdom's 9.523 million population, 1.265 million are Syrians, the results of the 2015 population census have shown.

Ninety per cent of Syrian refugees in Jordan live in cities and villages, rather than refugee camps, according to official estimates, while some 25 per cent of the state budget is allocated to cover refugee-related costs.