At Syria border, Jordanians dash over for cheap shopping
Reopening of Naseeb border crossing has given rise to a whole new economy
Near the recently reopened border with Jordan, former Syrian rebel fighter Baha’a Al Masri sells date-filled pastries and sesame biscuits to Jordanians flocking across the frontier to snap up bargains.
Syrian regime forces retook control of the Naseeb border crossing from rebels in July, and last month reopened it after a three-year closure.
Just several hundred metres from the frontier, 26-year-old Al Masri counts the boxes of biscuits he still has left in a green plastic crate strapped to the back of his motorbike.
“For two weeks I have been bringing sweets from Damascus and selling them to Jordanians who come to buy them here because they’re cheaper,” says the ex-combatant, wearing a black jacket and woollen hat.
“I sell 27 to 30 boxes a day.” Al Masri hawks the pastries every day in a rest area on the edge of Syria’s southern province of Daraa for three Jordanian dinars each (around $4, Dh14.68). “Thank God, when the border opened there was work again here, after I spent around six years without a job,” he tells AFP.
Because money was tight, he joined a rebel group that paid him a monthly wage to fight. “I picked up arms so we could eat and live,” he says, crates of green apples and oranges stacked behind him. ■
Also looking to cash in are Jordanian drivers, jokingly dubbed “sailors”, who ferry goods from Syria across the frontier for a small commission.
A whole economy has sprung up again since the border began working. At the crossing itself cars sit side by side in several long queues waiting to cross over into Syria. Large trucks, some refrigerated, also wait their turn.
Just for breakfast
Before the war, “we used to come over to Syria every day — sometimes just to have breakfast”, says Mohammad Sayes, a 25-year-old from Jordan’s adjacent border town of Ramtha. It was his second such trip since the border reopened “to see the sights, go out and eat” cheap, he says.
“Yes, Syria lived through a war, but we suffered a siege,” says the specialist in tourism management. “When the border reopened, it was like paradise opened up again.”
Further up, dozens of people stand in line outside a row of small pre-fabricated buildings to have their Jordanian passports stamped by Syrian officials.
Jordanian driver Muflah Al Hurani, 53, is crossing the border to drive a family back home from Damascus. He has been going in and out of Syria on an almost daily basis since Naseeb reopened, to transport passengers or shop for relatives.
Not far off, the former arrivals hall is being repaired after it was damaged in the war. Syrian officials have registered more than 33,000 arrivals since October 15, against 29,000 departures.