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Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - A Syrian refugee family crosses into Jordan, at the Hadalat border crossing in January
Jordan is prepared to allow tens of thousands of Syrians to work in the kingdom, the country’s prime minister said, if the international community agrees to extend billions of dollars’ worth of aid for its economy, which is buckling under the burden of hosting more than 1m refugees.

Abdullah Ensour made the remarks ahead of a donors’ conference on Syria in London on February 4, at which Jordan will ask for $1.6bn over three years to fund its overstretched schools, healthcare and other services.

The UK has been among those championing the idea of allowing more Syrians to work in Jordan to help support their families and contain the exodus of refugees from countries neighbouring Syria travelling to Europe.

Some refugees registered in Jordan have turned up in Europe in recent months, according to the UN High Commission for Refugees, because of cuts to their food rations and the lure of finding employment. Most are barred from working legally in Jordan.

Mr Ensour said that Jordan might provide jobs for up to 150,000 Syrians over several years — but only if donors agree to its request for a “holistic” aid plan for the refugee crisis that will address its own citizens’ needs too.

“It has to be a win-win,” Mr Ensour told the Financial Times in an interview. “It has to expand job opportunities for Jordanians [too]; it can’t be one-sided.”

Jordan’s government — having watched its bigger regional neighbour Turkey secure a €3bn aid deal from the EU last year to help it contain the flow of refugees — will be going to London with a laundry list of requests.

Jordanian census data published at the weekend showed that it was hosting 1.27m Syrians, in a country with a total population of 9.5m. Of these, about 630,000 are registered with the UN, and most live outside refugee camps alongside Jordanians.

Together with its promise to allow some Syrians to work, Jordan is making a pointed plea that contains an implied threat: help us more, or face the consequences of further conflict, and more refugees knocking on Europe’s door.

“There is a limit to how much the country can take; you don’t want us to collapse,” Mr Ensour said. “You don’t want our economic plans, our economic reform to be disrupted . . . You don’t want Jordan to be destabilised.”

While the world’s attention has been focused primarily on the Syrians themselves during the refugee crisis, Jordan’s government is raising the alarm over its own economy, which it says is going into reverse on some indicators.

Exports and tourism are down, gross domestic product growth is slowing, and the country’s debt has climbed to 91 per cent of GDP in 2015, from less than 70 per cent before the Arab Spring.

Diseases Jordan worked to eradicate, such as polio, have returned with the refugees. In some communities, tensions have flared between Syrians and Jordanians over scarce jobs and school places.

“Our entire development model is being challenged by the spillover of the Syrian crisis and the turmoil around us,” said Imad Fakhoury, Jordan’s planning and international co-operation minister.

Together with its $1.6bn request for aid for schools, healthcare, and other services, Jordan will be asking donors to bolster its budget through grants and low-cost, concessional financing not currently available because it is ranked as an upper-middle income country.

Jordan is also asking the EU to simplify the “rules of origin” governing its exports to Europe so that it can new jobs in its special development zones, where investors enjoy tax breaks. A free-trade agreement with the US has boosted investment and exports from garment factories.

Mr Fakhoury said that if the EU agrees on trade concessions, its export sector would expand further, allowing companies to employ more Jordanians and Syrians.

In a sign that Jordan’s position towards refugees is hardening, authorities have barred entry to a group of more than 20,000 who are camped out in the no man’s land at the Syrian border.

Jordanian officials have voiced security concerns over the refugees, many of whom they say come from areas of north-east Syria that are under control of the so-called Islamic State.

“Refugees are all over the country, in every village, in every quarter,” Mr Ensour said. “Therefore the solution has to be global: you have to look at Jordan as a country that has been hit by this war.”

*Financial Times