Refugees in Jordan’s Zaatari camp have few hopes

By: Marina Jimenez Foreign Affairs Writer, Toronto Star

"ZAATARI REFUGEE CAMP, JORDAN—It’s a bustling Saturday on “Champs- Elysées,” the dusty corridor that serves as the main thoroughfare in one of the world’s largest refugee camps.
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The camp sprang to life in 2012, to accommodate the thousands a day who were fleeing the civil war in neighbouring Syria, crossing over into Jordan. In the beginning, the camp was a hotbed of protest, as mafia-like groups tried to seize control.
But slowly, the troublemakers moved on, the camp residents accepted their fate, and conditions improved. Tents have been replaced by small caravans with holes in the ground for bathrooms. There is free electricity, two field hospitals and monthly food rations that can be redeemed at the supermarkets.

But slowly, the troublemakers moved on, the camp residents accepted their fate, and conditions improved. Tents have been replaced by small caravans with holes in the ground for bathrooms. There is free electricity, two field hospitals and monthly food rations that can be redeemed at the supermarkets.

But the refugees, who can obtain permits to leave the camp to visit relatives or for medical appointments, complain of boredom and a sense of hopelessness for the future. “The sewage smells; there is no electricity during the day. There is a lot of jealousy among the women and a lot of busybodies,” says Isra Mitoali, a 20-year-old who married a man she met in the camp a year ago, and then divorced him six months later. “I want to go anywhere else.”

The chances are slim. Just 1 per cent of Jordan’s total 630,000 Syrian refugees will be resettled in the West. And the UNHCR doesn’t select refugees from the camps except in exceptional cases of torture, spousal abuse or danger. Private resettlement groups don’t either, reasoning that urban refugees are in greater need because they cannot work. And, unlike those in the camp, they must pay for food, rent, electricity, water and health care.

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2015/11/01/refugees-in-jordans-zaatari-camp-have-few-hopes.html