As Syrian refugee population nears 1 million, relief agencies cannot keep up
By Taylor Luck,
Published: March 4
MAFRAQ, Jordan — The spread of
makeshift aluminum shelters erected by Syrians now outpaces new rows of
U.N. canvas tents here in chilly northern Jordan, home to one of the
world’s fastest-growing refugee camps. A vast black-market bazaar has
sprouted from the desert sand, where enterprising refugees hawk bottled
water and other basic necessities that most fellow camp residents can’t
afford.
As a mass Syrian emigration spills into neighboring countries,
relief organizations acknowledge that they can hardly keep up. The
exodus is accelerating so quickly that the tally of need will almost
certainly hit a grim milestone this week, when the number of Syrian
refugees who have registered with the United Nations — or are on
months-long waiting lists to do so — is expected to hit 1 million.
One-third of those desperate migrants have fled since January, the
United Nations says, most into Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. Here in
northern Jordan, the Zaatari camp has exploded from a modest cluster of
500 tents in August to
a refugee metropolis with a population of more than 146,000 — larger
than the nearby city of Mafraq and well more than double the camp’s
60,000-person capacity.
Yet aid officials say Syrians fleeing alleged massacres and Damascus’s fresh bombing campaigns
are stepping into a growing humanitarian catastrophe, either in
overcrowded camps with little to offer or, even more frequently, in
urban areas that struggle to support them and where the welcome has worn
thin....READ MORE
As the number of Syrian refugees nears 1 million, aid agencies say they can hardly keep up and warn of a humanitarian disaster.
