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Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - Hundreds of thousands of Syrians forced to flee the bloodshed in their homeland to Jordan are struggling to make a living outside that country's protective umbrella of refugee camps, said a study conducted by the United Nations refugees agency on Tuesday.

"The survey shows the day-to-day survival struggle of some 450, 000 registered Syrian refugees as they face rising rents, inadequate housing and educational challenges for their children," despite the support Jordan offers to them, including free access to public health care and school systems, said Dan McNorton, spokesperson for the UN Office of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Among the 584,600 Syrians currently living in Jordan, it is estimated that almost four in five live outside formal camps and " as their resources dry, many are turning to 'negative coping mechanisms' to make ends meet, sometimes placing themselves at risk of exploitation," McNorton said.

"After escaping the horrors of war at home, hundreds of thousands of Syrians who have fled the violence and deprivation are facing a second crisis in their place of refuge," said Andrew Harper, UNHCR's representative in Jordan. "Syrian refugees in Jordan are hanging on by a thread struggling to keep a roof over their heads and earn enough money to get by."

A joint initiative between the UNHCR and the International Relief and Development (IRD), the study showed the hardship of some displaced Syrians, through 92,000 interviews with families, conducted during home visits between June 2012 and October 2013.

It reveals that more than 90 percent of the population surveyed lives in rented accommodations, at which prices rose in 2012 and 2013 by as much as 25 percent in some locations. While rent payments account for almost two thirds of refugee expenditure, half of Syria's refugees feel they live in inadequate dwellings, including badly ventilated apartments that suffer from dampness or mould.

McNorton noted that "61 percent of Syrian children covered did not go to school during the 2012-2013 academic year," and that " among those at school, five percent reported having dropped out."

Reasons for this include challenges adjusting to the Jordanian curriculum, inability to catch up, having to work to earn money for their families, and the over-stretched capacity of the Jordanian public education system.

On a more positive note, the UNHCR-IRD study suggests that Syrian refugees are becoming increasingly self-reliant. Access to legal employment in Jordan is a challenge for refugees, but the proportion of cases reportedly receiving an income from work rose from 28 percent to 36 percent between 2012 and 2013.

Those receiving an income from humanitarian assistance and charities reportedly decreased from 63 percent to 49 percent.

UNHCR and IRD continue to interview some 10,000 refugee households every month in an effort to maintain an understanding of new or worsening vulnerabilities among displaced families living outside of camps.

More than 100,000 people were killed and the UN estimates that some 6.3 million people have been internally displaced since the conflict broke out in March 2011 in the Middle East country. More than two million Syrians have fled to neighboring countries including Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey.

According to UNHCR, a third refugee camp in Jordan will open on April 30 to accommodate an influx of Syrians. The Azraq camp, located nearly 100 km east of the Jordanian capital Amman, is expected to receive as many as 130,000 people, taking some pressure off Jordan's main Za'atari camp, which is running far beyond its capacity.

Housing more than 120,000, half of them children, Za'atari becomes the fourth largest city in Jordan and is also the world's second largest refugee camp after Dadaab in eastern Kenya.

There are 584,600 Syrian refugees registered with UNHCR in Jordan, a majority of them living in urban areas throughout the country and the remaining 20 percent in refugee camps and settlements.

*Xinhua