World Refugee Day - June 20, 2024

The number of refugees in Jordan continues to increase because the percentage of young people and the rates of early marriage and childbearing are high among refugees.

On June 20 of every year, the world celebrates a day that highlights the strength and courage of people forced to flee their homelands to escape conflict or persecution

 Every year, June 20^th marks World Refugee Day, a global day designated by the United Nations in honour of refugees around the world. This day highlights the courage of people forced to flee their homelands to escape conflict or persecution. World Refugee Day is also an occasion to mobilize support for host countries, provide sympathy and understanding for their plight, and acknowledge their determination to rebuild their lives.

The 1951 Global Convention on refugees defines a refugee as ‘someone who owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of [his/ her] nationality and who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of [their] former habitual residence, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to the country of [his/ her] nationality[1][2]."

The 1951 Convention contained a set of rights for refugees, including:

• The right not to be expelled, except under certain, strictly defined conditions and except in implementation of a decision taken in accordance with the procedural principles stipulated by the law, provided that refugees are given the right to object
• The right not to be punished for irregular entry: states do not impose criminal penalties on refugees due to their entry or presence in their territory without permission;
• Right to decent work;
• Right to housing, land and property, including intellectual property
• The right to education;
• The right to receive what is granted in the field of public relief and assistance;
• The right to practice religious rituals;
• The right to access to justice and the right to free litigation before the courts
• The right to freedom of movement within the territory                                            
• The right to be issued civil, identity and travel documents;
• The right to social protection of refugees has become the core mandate of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, which was established with the aim of caring for refugees.

In December 2018, the United Nations General Assembly approved the Global Compact on Refugees. The Charter provides a plan for governments, international organizations and other stakeholders to ensure that host communities receive the necessary support they need and that refugees enjoy fruitful lives to the benefit of both refugees and the communities hosting them.[3]

The demographic impact of refugees in Jordan:

• Refugees have contributed to the doubling of Jordan’s population in the last two decades

Syrians seeking asylum in Jordan in the second decade of this century has added obvious and discernible demographic, social, economic, environmental, security and information burdens added to the heavy burdens resulting from supporting a high percentage of young Jordanians and non-Jordanians already living there. Population growth in Jordan usually occurs primarily with an increase in the number of n new-born children each year; the last decade, though, was exceptional. The population increased by four million in 11 years, between the years of the last two censuses (2004 and 2015) at a high and unprecedented annual growth rate³ of 4.9%. The influx of refugees from Syria played a role in that increase, as the number of people holding the Syrian nationality, according to the latest Population and Housing Census, was 1.27 million people. Childbirth also contributed to the rapid population increase that Jordan has witnessed. The Department of Civil Status and Passports recorded about 2.7 million births between 2010-2022, at an average of one million births every five years. On the whole, more than 6 million people were added to the population of Jordan in less than twenty years (2004-2023); this indicates that the population has doubled in two decades since 2004. The number of non-Jordanians increased by 2.5 million people during the period between the last two censuses, and the percentage of non-Jordanians also increased from about 8% to 31 %, with an unprecedented annual growth rate of 18%. Most of this growth is due to Syrian refugees in the four years preceding the last census in 2015⁴, as Syrians constitute 43% of the total number of non-Jordanians, followed by Egyptians (21.8%), Palestinians (21.7%), Iraqis ( 4.5%), and other nationalities (about 9%).

In Jordan, UNHCR data indicate that the number of the commission’s registered refugees up to April 30, 2024 amounted to about 706,100 refugees, the largest percentage of whom were Syrians at 89.9% of a total of  634,728 refugees⁵). As for distribution of refugees according to age, children under 17 years old constituted 46% of the total refugees. The number of Palestinian refugees registered with UNRWA was more than two million refugees (2,206,736), which is the largest number of refugees from Palestine in all the regions where UNRWA⁶ operates.

• The percentage of young people and the rates of early marriage and childbearing are high among refugees

Although the influx of Syrians to Jordan has stopped and the fact that a small, insignificant number of them has returned to Syria, this does not necessarily mean a decline in the number of Syrians and other non-Jordanians currently residing in Jordan.  Rather, their numbers are constantly increasing due to the high rates of childbirth and marriage among them. Birth rates among Syrians are much higher than those among Jordanians. According to results of the 2023 Population and Family Health Survey, the complete childbearing rate for Syrian women in the age group 40-49 years is 4.5 children compared to 3.7 children for Jordanian women. This means that the number of refugees throughout all governorates in the Kingdom has been at a steady increase since their arrival in Jordan.

Data from Chief of Justice Department annual reports show the rates of marriage of those under 18 out of the total number of marriage contracts for females who married for the first time, according to the nationality of the bride. Statistics indicate that this type of marriage is in decline (see the table below). and this is due to efforts exerted by concerned authorities to implement the National Action Plan to limit the marriage of those under eighteen in Jordan. Yet, the  marriage of young girls is still quite prevalent and very high amongst Syrian refugees (38% compared to 10% among Jordanians according to the latest source).