Profoundly Challenged

"We talk in terms of hundreds of thousands of refugees and millions of displaced persons. It's sometimes easy to forget that these are all individual lives. We are touched by this.
"Unfortunately it appears that this is going to, if anything, get worse or continue. So our commitment must be for the long term."
Prime Minister Stephen Harper

Khalil Mazraawi/AFP/Getty Images     Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his wife Laureen tour the Za'atri Refugee Camp in Jordan on Friday, Jan. 24, 2014.

 

There are many Sunni refugees in the sprawling Za'atari refugee camp in Jordan who fear returning to Syria. "It depends on God willing to return home", said one refugee asking that his surname remain confidential for fear his parents, remaining in Syria, could be 'punished' by the Assad regime. That is the regime, needless to say, that has been largely responsible for over 100,000 deaths and growing into the 130,000 range. "Because if they catch me, they will kill all of my family", should he return.

Prime Minister Harper was driven through part of the camp to view the thousands of people on what has become a main thoroughfare, jammed with small shops and food vendors. A dozen kilometres from the Jordanian-Syrian border, and established in July 2012, managed by the United Nations Refugee Agency co-jointly with Jordan, 400,000 Syrians have passed through the camp. Many since have removed themselves to other areas of Jordan, some have returned to Syria.

Prime Minister Harper was there, visiting the camp with an official driver and escort by an armoured vehicle, to see first hand the difficulties in which refugees were living. At one time 1,500 people were arriving during the dark night hours to seek refuge in Jordan. Those numbers have diminished to 300 people per night, evading the Syrian sharpshooters by travelling at night and making their way over the border.

Fully half of the camp's inhabitants are children, only half of whom attend schools in the camp. The place has become one of discontent, with complaints by some of the refugees about the quality and quantity of food they're given by the UN. There have been stories of refugees beating UN officials. Violence and crime have made their virulent presence there. Things have improved of late, according to UNHCR official Kilian Kleinschmidt.

Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press     Syrian refugees make their way along a street in the Za'atri Refugee Camp in Jordan on Friday, Jan. 24, 2014.

 

"We have, today, a happy place where the bad boys have very little space to operate", he claimed, the result of the refugees themselves attempting to transform the camp into a community where they can live comfortably, since it seems they will be living there for some time to come into the future. The camp, observed Mr. Harper, "is just the tip of the iceberg of the scale of the refugee problem and the tremendous human suffering that we see".

"We're trying to be as helpful as we can", said the Prime Minister. Who pledged on behalf of Canada $150-million of new funding for displaced Syrians in the region, with $100-million allocated to food, shelter, clean water, sanitation, health care and education. And another $50-million to support a UNICEF campaign meant to aid Syrian child refugees. Which brings Canada's commitment to over $630-million in humanitarian aid to the Syrian crisis.