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Add to Preferred SourcesJordan continues to show a “great spirit of solidarity” with refugees by including them in its healthcare systems and COVID-19 response plans, despite the many challenges the country currently faces, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said during a two-day visit to the Kingdom on 14-15 September.
Jordan is a major refugee host country, with more than 658,000 registered refugees from the conflict in neighbouring Syria and tens of thousands more from other nationalities including Iraq, Yemen, and Sudan, as well as being home to large numbers of Palestinian refugees.
The High Commissioner’s visit comes the week after the discovery of the first positive cases of COVID-19 among Syrian refugees living in the country’s two main camps in Za’atari and Azraq, with a total of six confirmed cases so far.
“Once again, Jordan has been extremely positive from the point of view of humanitarian assistance by including refugees [and] ensuring that refugees would not be excluded from the care provided to [COVID] patients,” Grandi said.
Grandi said support from UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, for the pandemic response would benefit everyone in the country – refugees and Jordanians alike.
“The virus does not look at who we are, it can hit anybody, and it has hit Jordanians but also refugees,” he said. “We don’t want to make any distinction, and we are really helping the health system respond to this crisis.”
During the trip, Grandi visited Luzmila Hospital in the capital Amman, which is one of 50 private hospitals across the country through which UNHCR, together with partners Caritas and the Jordanian Paramedic Society, provide free-of-cost emergency referrals and medical treatment to refugees.
As well as the threat to health posed by COVID-19, measures to contain the virus have exacerbated the dire economic situation facing the most vulnerable individuals in Jordan including refugees, 79 percent of whom now live below the poverty line.
Original source: UNHCR