The UNHCR urgently warns of a new wave of refugees. The current situation in the Middle East is “reminiscent of the situation in 2015,” says spokesman for the UN refugee agency in Jordan, Roland Schönbauer. Cuts were also made to international refugee aid at the time.
“People always talk about smugglers, but these people haven’t been interested in smugglers for ten years,” said the Austrian. According to estimates, around 5,000 refugees left Jordan last year for other countries, mainly to Europe, but also to the Gulf States – an increase of ten percent.
“If you put two and two together…”
“If you put two and two together: anything other than an increase in this further migration would be illogical,” expert Schönbauer warns. The fact that people are “more and more likely to go out and look for happiness elsewhere” is behavior that “hurts”, said the former UNHCR representative in Austria. After all, the refugees would take great risks.
Roland Schönbauer regularly comments on current developments in the Middle East on social media.
Focus on Jordan
With approximately 720,000 refugees (of which approximately 640,000 from Syria alone), Jordan is the largest refugee-receiving country in the world by population. After the major refugee crisis of 2015/2016, the country promised to care for refugees if the international community would cover the costs again. However, this deal has “failed massively” over the past year and a half, and since 2022, international donations to Jordan have “fallen at a breathtaking pace.”
Surrounded by problem areas: nowhere else in the world do we have as many refugees per capita as in Jordan.
This causes enormous human suffering. As more and more NGOs have to stop their work, refugees face higher costs due to inflation. Nine in ten have debt, and 62 percent say they cannot cover even half of their necessities with UNHCR subsidies.
“Parents take their children out of school and send them to beg”
“Desperate behavior is increasing. Parents take their children out of school and send them to beg,” reports Schönbauer. They lived on leftover, ‘half-rotten’ food from the market, and evictions increased. This also endangers integration. In Jordan, 72 percent of refugees lived in apartments. If they can no longer afford it, the pressure on the camps increases, where care is much more expensive, says Schönbauer. “It is cheaper for the donor countries if people can live an integrated life in the communities.”
Jordan is an extremely refugee-friendly country: as many as 96 percent of its residents said they felt sympathy for refugees. “We would like to have such values in Europe.”
Aid to the Palestinians has been cut after the Hamas massacre
One reason for this is that the country also took in hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees when the state of Israel was founded. However, these are not provided by the UNHCR, but by the Palestinian aid agency UNRWA, which has recently been discredited due to terror allegations. This money is also running out because major donor countries – including Austria – have halted their payments due to the terror accusations. A vicious circle.
Source: Krone
I am Wallace Jones, an experienced journalist. I specialize in writing for the world section of Today Times Live. With over a decade of experience, I have developed an eye for detail when it comes to reporting on local and global stories. My passion lies in uncovering the truth through my investigative skills and creating thought-provoking content that resonates with readers worldwide.
