8,500 Syrians still held in camp

AZRAQ REFUGEE CAMP, Jordan — About 8,500 Syrians are still locked up behind barbed wire in a no-go section of Jordan’s second-largest refugee camp — despite initial assurances in 2016 that the arrangement is temporary, a coalition of aid groups said.

The Jordan INGO Forum, an alliance of 60 nongovernmental groups, asked Jordan to expedite security screenings, saying that at the current pace it would take until October 2020 to empty out Azraq camp’s fencedin “Village 5.”

The forum also called on Jordan to lift other restrictions on Syrian refugees, including on movement from camps to Jordanian towns. It said close to half of Azraq’s residents had been forcibly transferred there from elsewhere in Jordan, including refugees caught in police checks without proper papers.

Forum coordinator Yannick Martin said Tuesday that the international community must commend Jordan for its efforts in hosting refugees, but that “a frank dialogue needs to take place on continuous restrictions of movement that Syrian refugees face.”

Jordanian Information Minister Mohammed Momani said security vetting is up to the task and that refugee camps were set up to allow international aid agencies to provide the best possible services.

About 20 percent of Jordan’s 665,000 registered Syrian refugees live in three camps, the rest in host communities. Jordan says the actual number of Syrians in the kingdom is 1.3 million.

Jordan has said its policies are dictated by security concerns.