Eight years since its establishment, Azraq camp is a home for 40K refugees

AZRAQ, Jordan – More than eight years, since Azraq refugee camps was established to receive Syrian refugees, the camp has become a home for some, while others are looking for an opportunity to be resettled to a third country or a durable solution for the Syria crisis to return to their country.

“I was moved by the refugees’ resilience after 8 years of hard life in the camp,” said Ghulam M. Isaczai, the UN Resident Coordinator a.i and Humanitarian Coordinator following a visit to the camp, where he met with families and toured facilities for a firsthand experience on services provided there.

“Our UN agencies and humanitarian partners are doing an incredible job on the ground. However, there is a limit to that as more funding and resources are needed to sustain and improve these services,” Isaczai stressed.

The Azraq Refugee Camp, located some 100km east of Amman near the eponymous town in Zarqa Governorate, is currently a home for approximately 40,000 refugees.

Jordan hosts 760,000 refugees and asylum seekers registered with UNHCR.

Of those, some 670,000 are from Syria, making Jordan the No. 2 host of Syrian refugees per capita globally behind Lebanon. Azraq opened in April 2014, two years after the establishment of the Za’atari Camp, which hosts 80,000 refugees.

The United Nations provides an array of services to refugees both in camps and host community including protection, food and cash assistance, primary healthcare among others.

In Azraq Camp, services provided to refugees include:

• Food security & Nutrition 

WFP provides refugees living in camps with JOD 23 (approximately USD 32) per person every month through cash transfers, which can be used to buy food from a large variety of items in two WFP-contracted supermarkets and four bread shops in the camp. 

• Protection

UNHCR is the leading protection agency in the camp. Protection team carry out different activities including monitor and address urgent protection concerns, provide counselling on

access to services and assistance, answer refugees inquire over protection hotline. 

• Education

UNICEF supports the Ministry of Education (MOE) to guarantee access to education for all children in the six school complexes (15 schools and 4 standalone KG centres) in Azraq camp. A total of 11,347 children from KG2 to Grade 12 (50 per cent female) are enrolled in formal education, according to the MOE EMIS 2021-2022, and 205 children (48 per cent female) are enrolled in MOE-accredited non-formal education Drop-out programme according to NFE monthly figures, updated in May 2022.  

• Health

Four primary healthcare centres (PHCC) operate in Azraq camp, while healthcare services are offered through two comprehensive clinics, two basic clinics and one hospital with a weekly average of 5,597 consultations in the five camp facilities, 51 referrals to secondary and tertiary emergency life-saving cases to facilities outside the camp and an average of 19 live births per week.

• WASH

A supply of 2,450 m3 per day of clean and safe water is maintained through the summer season in Azraq camp. Desludging activities continued across the camp to ensure safe disposal of wastewater and prevention of contaminations.  

UNICEF completed the pilot project with installing 36 tap stands at the plot level in Azraq camp successfully and received positive and constructive feedback from community. Feedback from the community will be used for the camp-wide water network extension. The project also includes the installation of a third borehole in Q3 of 2022 that will increase the amount of water supplied to residents in the camps to meet their needs especially during high demand seasons.

• Shelter

UNHCR allocates shelters to refugees, conducts regular monitoring to assess the current shelter situation and updates the shelter allocation system accordingly to ensure accurate and easy shelter allocation process.

• Access to Energy

In 2017, Azraq refugee camp was the first refugee camp in the world to open a solar power plant, providing power and electricity to the camp’s 40,000 inhabitants. The grid-connected solar plant, split into three phases with a total capacity of 5 MWp, saves up to USD 2.75m per year in electricity consumption costs and reduces CO2 emissions by 6300 tons per year.

• Livelihoods

There are possible forms of income generating opportunities in Azraq refugee camp including Incentive-based Volunteering Scheme (IBVs), Private business on the local market (Souq), Work Permits, and Home-Based Businesses (HBBs).

As of 30 June, 4,260 work permits are registered in the work permit database including 1,210 for females.