Off the wire
• China, Denmark signs agreement for 15-year giant panda research  • South African stocks close weaker as investors wait for U.S. Fed statement  • AfDB mulls funding to help 5 African countries fight climate change: president  • Kenyan stars head to Qatar hopeful of dominating the Doha League meet  • British FTSE 100 decreases 0.21 pct  • German benchmark DAX index closes flat  • Spanish stock market rises 0.15 pct  • Global Fund elects new board chair  • 1st LD-Writethru: China requires large banks to set up inclusive finance divisions in 2017  • China to send two giant pandas to Denmark  
You are here: 　 Home

Jordan calls for int'l support to countries hosting Syrian refugees

Xinhua, May 3, 2017 Adjust font size:

A Jordanian official on Wednesday called for more international support to countries that host Syrian refugees.

The remarks were made by Jordanian Minister of Planning and International Cooperation, Emad Fakhoury, at the opening of the Second International Conference for Refugees in the Middle East held in Amman.

He said leaving neighboring countries that host Syrian refugees without the required support will worsen the refugee crisis and increase human suffering.

The minister also stressed the need for the international community to maintain financial aid to Jordan so that the kingdom can continue to support refugees as it has done throughout its history.

Jordan has always been a haven for the displaced and has never failed to fulfil its national, religious and humanitarian duty, Fakhoury said.

The minister, however, said the refugee influx negatively impacts the social and economic stability of host countries and threatens their national development achieved during the previous decades.

According to Fakhoury, the waves of Iraqi refugees, which began in the 1990s, and the recent waves of Syrians have caused great pressure on all walks of life, especially the water and sanitation sector, health, education and municipal services. The refugee waves have also produced social problems that were unknown to the Jordanian society in the past.

"Unfortunately, no solution is imminent, as it is clear that the internal repercussions on the neighboring countries will take longer than many expected," he said.

According to the minister, the total population of the kingdom has reached 9.5 million, where Jordanian citizens are 6.61 million and half of non-Jordanians were Syrian refugees.

According to the UNHCR, the number of registered refugees in Jordan has reached 2.8 million, which makes the country the largest host of refugees in the world.

Fakhoury said the Jordanian government has adopted a resilience-based plan which combines humanitarian and development efforts into a single national framework to serve the interests of both refugees and host communities.

The plan, which will be implemented in cooperation with the international community, the UN and civil society institutions, involves a number of programs and projects worth 2.18 billion U.S. dollars to support refugees and meet their needs, he noted. Endit