Syrian refugees in Jordan caught between uncertainty and the desire to return
The Syrian community in Jordan (1.3 million) remains trapped between poverty and cuts in international aid, which have increased since the fall of the Assad regime. According to the UNHCR, few Syrians have returned home. "My house was destroyed,” one refugee told AsiaNews. He wonders how he can go back to a place without work. In Mafraq, near the Za'atari camp, people barely survive. Relations between Jordan and Syria rekindle hopes, but the future remains uncertain.
Amman (AsiaNews) – When the news of the fall of Bashar al-Assad's regime reached Jordan on 8 December, it was like “the doctor saying that you recovered from an incurable disease".
Abu Hassan’s life and that of his family have a date they will never forget: 23 March 2013. On that day they left Syria, fleeing their home in Ghutah and their farmland near Damascus, after the area came under heavy fire from government forces.
“When we arrived here, this land was empty," he says, pointing around and holding a daffodil with the "scent of home" in his hands. For 12 years he and others lived in Mafraq, in Jordan’s far north, 15 km from the border.
When 14 Syrian families came together in this desert spot, they set up a camp with tents and temporary accommodations. Since then, the informal settlement turned into a real village because staying in Jordan became their safest choice over the years. This was made possible thanks to the help of numerous organisations, including Caritas Jordan and an Italian NGO, Non dalla Guerra (Not from War).
“We had hope for the future. Slowly we rebuilt, for a dignified life, not as refugees," Abu Hassan notes. The Syrian community established here now has 24 families.
From the village, when evening falls, you can see the lights on the other side of the border, and the indistinct bright spot of the Za'atari camp, the largest in the Middle East, the first place for many Syrians who fled to Jordan after 2011 (1.3 million).
Now, with Syria going through a new social and political phase under the banner of "reconstruction", with the interim government committed to leading a five-year constitutional project, the dream of home is becoming ever more intense.
And the name of the dictator Bashar al-Assad can be mentioned again, after years of whispers and things unsaid. "When we return . . .", Abu Hassan chants.
"I feel like a dry tree. When we come back, it will be like receiving all the water that has not been given to me for years". But there is still a lot of uncertainty.
According to the UNHCR, only a small number (about 302,000) of Syrians have returned from Turkey, Lebanon, and Jordan since December. The return is held back by the fear of becoming "refugees" in one's own homeland. And by the persistence of sectarian violence.
For Abu Hassan, “If the situation wasn't difficult, there would be no one left in Jordan.” Only a few families have returned to Syria from Mafraq. Those who remain, like Abu Adballah and his relatives, live in a "purgatory" of indecision.
Since December, Syrians in Jordan are no longer deemed refugees. This has affected humanitarian aid, badly impacted by recent cuts to US funding. About 90 per cent of Syrians depend on this to survive. In Jordan, more than 93 per cent of Syrian households said they could not meet basic needs on their own.
"We can't work here. We don't have enough money. But it is the same in Syria. My house there was destroyed. My family is made up of nine. How can I pay for the trip? With 500 Jordanian dinars (about US$ 700) I could reach Damascus, but then I would have to rebuild,” he said.
Some heads of families have returned alone before bringing their families, women and children. In recent months Caritas Jordan has recorded an increase in abuse of those who remain, due to this temporary "abandonment".
On 26 February, Syrian interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa met with King Abdullah II in Amman for the first time. During the meeting, the need to create adequate conditions for the "voluntary" return of Syrian refugees was discussed. Not "forced" - for the moment - like in Lebanon and Turkey.
For this reason, Jordan is asking for greater collective efforts, at a time when humanitarian organisations are short of what is needed.
On 14 December, after the fall of the al-Assad regime, an international meeting on the future of Syria was held in Aqaba. On that occasion, participants expressed support for the Syrian-led political transition.
The committee – composed, among others of Saudi Arabia and Egypt - reiterated its solidarity with the Syrian people, stressing their right to determine their future. This was followed on 9 March by another regional meeting in Amman, in which efforts to safeguard the security, sovereignty and territorial integrity of the "new" Syria were once again reaffirmed.
Abdel (not his real name), a 64-year-old Syrian, met with the Italian association Non Dalla Guerra – which supports Caritas's educational projects – and AsiaNews at the al-Hashmi al-Shamali centre, on the north-eastern outskirts of Amman.
He comes from Dar'a, where he was a doctor, and has been in Jordan since 2012, with his wife and six of his eight children. “We came on foot, we crossed the desert until the border. The Jordanian army welcomed us. We were given a tent, bread and electricity... things not available in Syria. We hadn't eaten for days," he said.
Like Abu Hassan, he notes that the fate of Syrians in Jordan today is very uncertain. "Here we don't work, life is difficult, we feel a hole in our hearts for having left the people we love. But now we don't want to go back, we wouldn't find anything in Syria," he explained.
The updates he receives from his two sons who live in Syria are not heartening. “My house was destroyed, looted, deserted. There is no money, the economy is not good. The jobs we had now are not there. The money and gold we had are gone,” he explains. The fear of meeting those who collaborated with the al-Assad regime is still strong, and social instability does not allow anyone to feel safe, and to look to the future with serenity.
“At night there are gunshots, people quarrelling,” his children told him. "That's why we are afraid to return. If the new government manages to control all the territory, then we will think about it".
The deaths at the hands of the regime that have gone unpunished still fuel the suspicion that someone that is close might be behind them.
“It still takes a lot,” said Abdel, who still dreams of a visa to go "anywhere", to Germany, the Netherlands or Canada, after many attempts that failed and false promises. Syria's healing is a slow process from which perhaps his children might fully benefit.
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26/11/2018 09:01
