News and Comment: The Syrian Refugees In Jordan
News:
On March 21, the BBC reported on “Jordan’s ‘forgotten’ urban refugees from Syria”. The article covers the growing crisis of urban refugees in Jordan that have escaped Syria and even left the official refugee camps but are still living in danger due to the substandard housing and lack of financial security that has become the daily struggle for thousands of Syrian families. “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, the UNHCR representative in Jordan. The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) says it is concerned that many Syrians living in urban areas have “reached the limits of their ability to cope“, finding it hard to pay rents, while facing inadequate housing and educational challenges for children.
Comment:
Contrary to what many may think, Jordan’s 600,000 Syrian refugees do not actually live in UN camps, they are dispersed in many urban areas and cities where they suffer from unemployment, malnutrition, poor medical attention and low living standards as there are little resources organized to meet their needs. The BBC report describes the reality of how most of these ‘family’ units are comprised of women and children who have lost male relatives at the hands of Assad’s regime and any surviving guardians are often wounded or too elderly making them physically incapable of working. The gross injustice of Jordan’s social laws forbid Syrian refugees to work, even if there are men willing and capable to do so, this means that charity donations from non-governmental organizations and local citizens are often the soul means by which people are able to eat and pay rent thus forcing Syrian refugees to live a hand-to-mouth existence that often forces men, women and children into the humiliating position of begging assistance and relying on the kindness of strangers as normal family structure have been fragmented by the war .
The Women of the Central Media Office have investigated from our own sources that, although Jordan had allowed Syrian children to enter the government schooling system, the abject poverty has created a generation of Syrian youth that is disadvantaged as they often attend classes hungry and sick due to the inability of parents to feed and clothe them appropriately, let alone afford the basic equipment most school children take for granted such as school bags, pens, books, etc. Our sources on the ground have reported that often teachers themselves pay for snacks and meals for the particularly vulnerable or needy Syrian students. The recent cold weather has meant that children have even died due to lack of heating and furniture to keep children safe and warm as most Syrian’s in urban areas inhabit the cheapest, most run down properties and are unable to maintain basic living standards such as beds, heaters and carpets.
The Jordanian government deserves nothing less than the harshest of criticism and accounting for the engineering of social poverty and deprivation that is rife in the Syrian population. It is a shame of the highest order that it allows Syrian children to live in squalor and life threatening poverty after they have, by the mercy of Allah (swt), been taken out of the warzone that targeted them with bombs, poison gas and starvation, only to face an equally harrowing ordeal of daily survival under the system that treats them with the same contempt and inhumanity that Assad himself would be proud of!
The Women of the Central Media Office deem the UN stipend of $140 (£85) per month for each Syrian family as a measure that adds insult to the great injury suffered by our beloved Syrian brothers and sisters and we, unlike our selfish and crippled leaders of the surrounding Muslim nations will not accept that this matter of their hardships continues without condemnation of those that have the power to raise the Syrians out of their insecurity, humiliation and misery.
We call for all Muslims globally to work for the reestablishment of the Khilafah, the Islamic ruling system that will not throw crusts of bread to its needy Ummah, so as to watch them die slowly.
We call for the system that, like Umar Ibn al Khattab (RA), would realise the call of Allah (swt) in the hadith of the Prophet (saw) when he said as narrated ‘Abdullah bin ‘Umar:
«كُلُّكُمْ رَاعٍ وَكُلُّكُمْ مَسْؤول عَنْ رَعِيَّتِهِ، الإِمَامُ رَاعٍ وَمَسْؤولٌ عَنْ رَعِيَّتِهِ، وَالرَّجُلُ رَاعٍ فِي أَهْلِهِ وَهُوَ مَسْؤولٌ عَنْ رَعِيَّتِهِ، وَالْمَرْأَةُ رَاعِيَةٌ فِي بَيْتِ زَوْجِهَا وَمَسْؤولَةٌ عَنْ رَعِيَّتِهَا، وَالْخَادِمُ رَاعٍ فِي مَالِ سَيِّدِهِ ومَسْؤولٌ عَنْ رَعِيَّتِهِ، -قَالَ: وَحَسِبْتُ أَنْ قَدْ قَالَ: وَالرَّجُلُ رَاعٍ فِي مَالِ أَبِيهِ وَمَسْؤولٌ عَنْ رَعِيَّتِهِ- وَكُلُّكُمْ رَاعٍ وَمَسْؤولٌ عَنْ رَعِيَّتِهِ»
“Each of you is a guardian, and each is responsible for those under his care. A ruler is a guardian; a man is the guardian of his family; a woman is the guardian of her husband’s house and children. For each of you is a guardian and each of you is responsible for those under his care.”
The Amir of the Muslims in the Khilafah would, like the Khalif’s before his, never accept to sleep at night knowing that one of his citizens were hungry or homeless, Umar Ibn Al Khattab (ra) was concerned about the animals not having their needs such was his understanding of his accountability of leadership. He was the founder of the first Social Security system that other western nations partially copy today. In this manner, such unprecedented levels of hardship and suffering of the Ummah of Muhammad (saw) and indeed humanity as a whole would be unthinkable!
Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Imrana Mohammed
Member of the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir