A visit to Jordanian/Syrian border

Since January 2012, Jordan has become home for more than 300,000 Syrian refugees who escape the civil war in their country. Jaber, a town located 80 km northern of Amman, is one of the busiest crossing points used by the Syrians to enter the Kingdom. Last week I had a chance to visit refugee collection point in Jaber managed by the Jordanian military.

“The Syrian refugees enter Jordan through 45 crossing points along the 378-kilometre border. And we receive around 2,000 to 3,000 people each day,” the Commander of Jordanian Border Security Forces, Brigadier Hussein R.Al-Zyoud explained. “Many Syrians arrive in Jordan with various injuries, including bullet wounds. We evacuate the injured people by ambulances to the nearby public hospital”, he added and admitted that the number of ambulances operated in the border is not sufficient to handle many injured Syrians.

A military official said he sometimes heard heavy artillery and gun shots in Naseeb, a town near Jordanian border.   Most Syrians used to cross the border during night time. As violence intensified in the Syria’s southern province, now people come at all hours of
the day.

Here at the frontier, newly arrived Syrians are given medical assistance, food, blanket and clothing operated by the military. That evening I saw around 250 exhausted Syrians sat in the cold under an opened tent, waiting for hours to be transferred to the nearby Zaatari
desert camp that already houses more than 100,000 people.

A mother was helping her 4-year-old daughter to put on her new purple boots and a jacket from JEN. Their clothes dusty and wrinkled after fleeing with what little they could carry. A few hours earlier, she, along with her five children, had made their way from the embattled Damascus to the southern province of Daraa. “Our home was destroyed. We fled the city to Daraa. Then we walked for 1.5 hour until we arrive at Jordanian border”, said the woman.

JEN has prepared and dispatched clothing packages for around 1,500 new arrivals at the border. Thanks to UNIQLO, Felissimo and JICA for supporting our humanitarian mission for the Syrian refugees in Jordan.