The reported number of Syrian refugees crossing the border into Jordan has dropped from 2,000 a day to fewer than 10 a day, according to Panos Moumtzis, Syria Regional Refugee Coordinator for the UNHCR.
UNHCR representative to Jordan Andrew Harper added that “It is not clear what is happening. But we think that the refugees are having trouble accessing the border area from the Syrian side of the border.” “It is extraordinary that all of a sudden from receiving two thousand refugees a day, the number has dropped to close to zero, to have five or nine a day.” said Moumtzis. UNHCR is checking with authorities to see if “people are not being allowed to move, is it security or something else?”
Jordan has received over 400,000 refugees of the 1.5 million that have fled Syria since 2011.
- 05.2013
UNHCR, Syria Regional Refugee Response
This article originally appeared in the ECRE Weekly Bulletin of 24 May 2013
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