By Arab Media Watch intern Sarah Sanders
27 March 2008
Media images have trained us to recognise refugees: tent cities, plastic sheeting, food and water distribution, doctors in emergency field clinics, and so forth. With Iraqi refugees in Jordan, however, most live in urban centres rather than rural areas or refugee camps. There are no refugee camps for Iraqis; rather, they are crammed into tiny dwellings in poorer urban areas.
This is the footage that is never shown. But despite having been moderately integrated into Jordanian society, their lives are diverse and increasingly complicated. For Jordan, their arrival has magnified internal security concerns, strained social services, and aggravated economic and environmental problems.
Background
There have been two primary waves of Iraqi refugees coming into Jordan. The first wave arrived after the 1991 Gulf War and Saddam's brutal repression of Iraqi Shiites and Kurds and the economic sanctions that followed. Many of these refugees were upper-middle class, including doctors, intellectuals and teachers.
Before the start of the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, between 250,000 and 300,000 were thought to have been already living in Jordan. This figure has included not only Iraqi refugees, but also long-term residents who had remained in Jordan to work, often doing business in Iraq.
After the 2003 invasion, the demographics of those fleeing from Iraq to Jordan were similar to those of the first wave. They were businessmen and former government officials who brought with them great potential for investments. This influx of cash helped boost the Jordanian economy, but also fueled inflation and wage shortages, which aggravated existing inequalities.
As violence in Iraq grew worse, poorer Iraqis began to stream into Jordan, causing prices of food, petrol, and housing in particular to rise. This has become an issue not only for poor Jordanians, but also for Iraqis who were (and most still are) unable to sustain themselves in Jordan.
In the immediate aftermath of the invasion, contrary to initial expectations, only a few hundred Iraqis left their country. Nevertheless, media attention focused on several thousand people from ethnic and religious minorities who were stuck in three camps on the Jordanian side of the border, and in a 'no-mans land' between the two countries.
Palestinians, Kurds, Iranians and Sudanese found themselves with nowhere to go. Many have been resettled, but a group of Iranian Kurds is still trapped between Jordan and Iraq and, as of January 2007, 119 were living in the al-Ruweished camp about 50 kilometres from the Iraqi border on the Jordanian side.
These groups are a fraction of those fleeing Iraq. As sectarian violence in Iraq escalated, Iraqis began fleeing en masse to Jordan and surrounding countries.
Although exact numbers of Iraqi refugees are not easy to come by since the Jordanian government has not carried out any solid statistical studies, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimates that over 4 million Iraqis have been displaced since 2003, 750,000 to 1 million of whom have fled to Jordan.
In a country of 5.5 million people, a million Iraqis have put a large strain on the economy and politically charged the environment in Amman, whose population is mostly made up of Palestinian refugees. There is a general fear and concern among Jordanians of turning the kingdom into a 'refugee Mecca.'
Legal Status and Jordanian Openness
The question of who should assume responsibility for refugees fleeing Iraq has created tension between the UNHCR and Jordan's government.
In the months leading up to the 2003 invasion, Jordanian officials made clear that Iraqi refugees would not be permitted to remain in the country. Furthermore, Jordan has not signed the 1951 United Nations Refugee Convention or the 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, the major international agreements governing the status of refugees.
Jordan has also provided no legal definition of refugees, and has not established a domestic refugee law for the determination of refugee status. The Jordanian Interior Ministry divides Iraqis into categories such as guests, investors, residents and refugees, although the term 'refugee' is seldom used.
Despite this lack of legal clarity, the UNHCR has been operating in Jordan since October 1991, when its Amman office was opened to address issues with refugees (mainly Palestinian) in the wake of the 1991 Gulf War.
In a memorandum of understanding between the UNHCR and Jordan's government signed in April 1998, Jordan accepted UNHCR operations under the stipulation that refugees would be repatriated or resettled, and that individuals recognised as refugees would not stay in the country for more than six months.
Formal asylum seekers who register with the UNHCR are given registration cards, and the Jordanian authorities grant them temporary protection and valid residence permits. But Jordan has rejected the principle of local integration.
In fact, the vast majority of Iraqi refugees in Jordan are not recognised as such by the UNHCR, and as of March 2007, the UNHCR had officially granted refugee status to only 1,300 Iraqis. Roughly 22,000 are seeking asylum, but no official records exist on the total number of Iraqis who have entered Jordan or who have remained.
One reason so few refugees register with the UNHCR is that many are unfamiliar with the process required to attain refugee status. Others are fearful of being denied asylum, as cases of deportation are increasing in Jordan. Although registering entails securing one’s residence in Jordan in the near term, neither asylum seekers nor unclassified refugees are entitled to work permits or public assistance.
Furthermore, if these refugees were to be registered, they would be much more visible and therefore more likely to be harassed or denied work. According to Jordanian residency laws, Iraqis are entitled to stay in the country for three to six months, after which a person either leaves or applies for annual residency.
From 2003 to 2006, Jordan admitted Iraqis with few restrictions, and authorities looked the other way when they overstayed their visas. But this policy has been changing.
A number of reports have surfaced indicating a rise in deportation and incarceration. Human Rights Watch reported in November 2006 that Jordan had begun to refuse entry to Iraqi men between 17 and 35 years of age, yet other reports suggest this practice is only sporadically enforced, and the government denies a blanket ban.
At the same time, the government has taken clear steps to hinder the flow of refugees. On 2 January 2006, Jordan imposed new border restrictions that prohibit vehicles with Iraqi licence plates from entering the country.
And on 28 February 2007, Iraqis seeking entrance into Jordan were informed they must carry a new type of passport, which was only made available in April 2006 and which the Iraqi Embassy in Amman only began issuing on 8 April 2007. Before being issued in Amman, these new G-Series passports were issued only in Baghdad, and were often only obtainable in return for a large bribe. Still, Jordan insists that its border with Iraq has continued to remain open.
Internal Security and Economic Concerns
The flow of refugees into Jordan has caused alarm in the country's security establishment, resulting in the imposition of stricter border conditions on Iraqi nationals. Two events in particular raised security concerns throughout the kingdom.
On 19 August 2005, a group of Syrians, Iraqis and Jordanians claimed they were part of al-Qaeda in Iraq and carried out rocket attacks on two US warships docked in Aqaba Bay. This attack was followed by the bombing of three hotels in Amman by Iraqi nationals on 9 November 2005, killing 60 people.
Fearing the growth of Islamic militancy, the government began to prevent more Iraqis from entering Jordan, and has made renewing residency permits more difficult. Also, more Iraqis are turned away at the border since the Amman bombings.
Although Jordanians are undoubtedly concerned about militants, some Iraqi refugees in Jordan claim that the official crackdown is taking on sectarian dimensions. They point to King Abdullah's 2004 warning of a "Shiite crescent" spreading from Iran to Lebanon, as well as to the fact that authorities have paid more attention to Shiites, fearing sectarian spillover from Iraq.
In November 2006, it was reported that the government had deported a group of Iraqi Shiites the previous month, apparently for practicing self-flagellation rituals at a Shiite shrine outside Amman. In at least one instance, Jordanian authorities have rejected requests to establish a Shiite mosque, and in 2005 Jordan barred Shiite Iraqis from holding rites at a local shrine.
Not only have Jordanian security concerns affected Iraqi refugees' access to work, deportation or refusal at the border, economic concerns are also affecting many Iraqis and Jordanians, and are causing a greater climate of anxiety among Iraqis. They are often unable to find work, given government restrictions on employment, and a national unemployment rate of around 20% makes it difficult for anyone to find work.
Furthermore, real estate prices have skyrocketed since 2004, making housing unaffordable for Iraqis and Jordanians alike. Likewise, the cost of basic goods has risen dramatically. Government efforts to eliminate fuel subsidies have played a part, but Iraqis have increased demand and provide an easy scapegoat for Jordanians looking for someone to blame for their economic condition.
Other issues facing Iraqis in particular, but also Jordan as a whole, include access to educational services, water distribution and overcrowding. After a long-standing bout of bureaucratic wrangling and the subsequent intervention of the king, Iraqi children were allowed to be admitted to private schools.
And as of late July 2007, they are admitted to Jordanian public schools for a fee of $60 (about £30) per year per child, which barely covers books and study materials. Furthermore, even when Iraqis can overcome the bureaucratic and legal confusion of sending their children to school, classrooms are overcrowded and ill equipped.
The flow of refugees into Jordan has also strained the kingdom's ability to deliver water to its population. Jordan is one of the most water-poor countries in the world. With per capita renewable water resources of less than 200 cubic metres per year, Jordan falls far short of the 1,000 cubic metres per year recommended by the World Bank.
The country faces the perennial challenges of water shortages, and the entry of nearly 1 million refugees hampers the government's ability to manage the crisis.
Increased crowding is also an issue. The number of new vehicles in Amman has resulted in more traffic and longer commutes. When coupled with rising housing and fuel costs and the difficulty of finding employment, these developments have contributed to growing resentment toward Iraqis. Although this resentment has not yet manifested itself in overt tensions, large refugee flows could eventually weaken the state and undermine Jordan's political and economic stability.
Jordan and the International Arena: Eliciting a Response
In January 2007, the UNHCR made an emergency request for $60 million, which was more than double its $29 million budget in 2006. Jordan's government has also taken steps toward recognising and alleviating the problem. On 22 January 2007, it called for an international conference to discuss the current exodus of Iraqis fleeing to neighbouring countries.
Responding to similar calls throughout the region and to elevated international pressure, the UNHCR planned such a conference for 17-18 April 2007 in Geneva in order to "mobilize much bigger support, especially for the countries that are paying the price of being generous in hosting refugees."
Though Jordan's government is taking steps towards alleviating and recognising the issue of Iraqi refugees, its relative silence on this topic up to 2006 prevented adequate international aid from reaching Iraqis, which left valuable opportunities untapped. Only since February 2007, as the issue gained increased international attention, has the government begun to speak more openly about the problem.
Given its small scale, resettlement will relieve only a fraction of the pressures on Jordan's infrastructure. In this regard, protection and assistance to refugees who remain in Jordan are at least as important.
In 2006, the US provided $7.9 million of the UNHCR's operational budget for Iraq, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. This figure represented 27.5% of the total, but was less than half of the $19.9 million provided in 2005. The fiscal year 2007 request for migration and refugee assistance included $20 million for Iraqi humanitarian needs.
The US, UK and EU are paying more attention to the refugee issue. On 5 February 2007, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced the creation of a high-level taskforce to look into the issue of Iraqi refugees. In Britain, under a new £25 million government programme, around 2,000 Iraqis are being offered either a one-time payment for their services to the British government - either as interpreters or other staff - or a chance to settle in the UK.
However, of all the Iraqis seeking asylum in the UK, only about one in six is allowed to remain. In fact, of the 310 Iraqis who sought asylum in the UK in the second quarter of 2007, only 30 were allowed to stay on their first application, and a further 25 were given leave to remain. The remainder were refused.
Local UK refugee support networks are concerned about these Iraqi asylum seekers who are denied asylum in the UK, because they are denied basic support services in the UK and are forced to return back to Iraq. It is estimated that as many as 8,000 Iraqis are destitute in the UK because they do not want to go home but cannot access support.
To give a comparison with another EU country: around 9,300 applications were registered in Sweden, which already has absorbed a large Iraqi refugee community, whereas 580 applications were registered in the UK in the first half of 2007.
The US and UK governments have been accused of not doing enough to ameliorate the Iraqi refugee crisis. From the start of the war in 2003 through September 2006, the US absorbed only 466 Iraqi refugees.
The US State Department announced in February 2007 that it would expand its capacity to receive referrals from the UNHCR and process about 7,000 of them in the near term, up from 202 in fiscal year 2006. But even if the US were to use its 20,000 emergency refugee slots for Iraqis, that action would still do little to reduce the pressure on Jordan and other countries in the region.
An outflow of Iraqi refugees was one of the few contingencies Jordan's administration anticipated and planned for prior to the war. Although no large refugee flows occurred during the fighting of 2003, predictions made before the war are now proving correct, and the crisis over Iraq has been among King Abdullah's greatest challenges. Iraqis illegally in Jordan are living in a climate of anxiety.
Without guaranteed work authorisation and a continued decrease in savings, many Iraqis become dependent on relatives outside Jordan to send them money. Others sell their belongings or seek low-paying, under-the-table work, some turn to selling goods on the street or even prostitution.
At least four million Iraqis are now displaced, and their numbers are continuing to rise at an estimated rate of 2,000 people per day, making this the world's fastest growing displacement crisis. And Jordan, which has traditionally been and continues to be one of the region’s most welcoming countries toward refugees, has been absorbing them into the country.
Nevertheless, unless the international community takes steps to help counter problems resulting from the influx of Iraqi refugees, the kingdom, long known for its stability and openness, may soon be compelled by self-interest to shut its borders.
Sources:
Alan George, Jordan: Living in the Crossfire (London and New York: Zed Books, 2005).
"Jordan Tightens Iraqi Immigration," BBC News, 28 February 2007 (available online at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6403549.stm).
Human Rights Watch Report, "The Silent Treatment: Fleeing Iraq, Surviving in Jordan"
http://www.hrw.org/reports/2006/jordan1106/index.htm.
"Iraq-Jordan: UNHCR Upbeat about Future of Ruweished Refugees," IRIN, 10 January 2007 (available online at http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=64370).
Robin Wright and Peter Baker, "Iraq, Jordan See Threat to Election from Iran; Leaders Warn Against Forming Religious State," Washington Post, 8 December 2004 (available online at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A43980-2004Dec7.html).
Shafika Mattar, "Respect for Hezbollah, Influx of Iraqi Shiites Fuel Fears of Shiite Influence in Jordan," Associated Press Online, 17 November 2006.
"UN refugee commissioner makes plea for displaced Iraqis," Middle East News, 8 February 2007 (available online at http://news.monstersandcritics.com/middleeast/...).
Jamie Doward and Mark Townsend, "Just One in Six of Iraq's Refugees is Accepted," The Observer, 7 October 2007 (available online at http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2007/oct/07/iraq.immigration).
Matt Weaver, "US to Welcome 7,000 Iraqi Refugees," The Guardian, 14 February 2007 (available online at http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/feb/14/usa.iraq2).
Amnesty International, "UK: Failure to Take Share of Iraqi Refugees Is Shameful," 19 February 2007 (available online at http://www.amnesty.org.uk/news_details.asp?NewsID=17276).
Ivar Ekman, "Cold Comfort in Sweden for Iraqi Refugees," International Herald Tribune, 13 June 2007 (available online at http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/06/13/europe/sweden.php).