Video appears to refugees stranded at Syria/Jordan border: apparently denied entry
28-05-2013 09:50 PM
Ammon News - From Al Bawaba
A video posted online on Tuesday appears to a group of Syrian refugees being denied entry into Jordan.
The amatuer footage, shot by a group called Ugarit News on Monday, allegedly shows dozens of men, women and children waiting to cross the border into Jordanian territory. They are then apparently refused entry by the Jordanian Armed Forces on the other side.
"Jordanian army closes the border, preventing the refugees from getting into Jordan, they are all women and children, (zooms in) those are the jordanian army men stopping syrian families from entering Jordan," the narrator says, as the pictures two men dressed military uniforms speaking to the refugees, who then turn away.
The numbers of refugees entering the Kingdom suddenly dropped on May 17 from an average of thousands to a handful daily, prompting suspicions that Jordan had closed its northern border to refugees. The government has strenuosuly denied the claim.
"The border is open to refugees, without limitations. Any problems are on the Syrian side. There are so many rumors that Jordan's closed the border, that only the injured can cross but the border is open," Anmar al-Hmoud, spokesman for Higher Committee for Syrian Refugees in Jordan, told Al Bawaba on Tuesday.
"There have been more than 600 crossings since Saturday. 236 refugees have entered Jordan today."
UNHCR's representative to Jordan Andrew Harper reported that intense fighting has erupted near the border region in the last two weeks which could be preventing Syrians from crossing to Jordan.