New approach needed to deal with refugee crisis

According to Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour, His Majesty King Abdullah will be telling the February 4 refugee donors’ conference that “the Syrian crisis is no longer a refugee concern only, but a security burden, an issue of sleeper cells, illicit drug trafficking, terror and radicalism”.

The London conference is sponsored by the UK, Germany, Kuwait, Norway and the UN.

During his recent visit to the Azraq Refugee Camp, which houses about 30,000 Syrian refugees, the prime minister also told reporters that it is no longer possible for the Jordanian economy to cope with the high increase in the country’s population, which saw 3 more million added as a result of the influx of refugees.

According to the just-released population census, there are 1.265 million Syrian refugees in the country, about 110,000 in refugee camps at Zaatari and Azraq and the rest scattered among host communities in the country.

“It is true that supporting Syrian refugees is our duty, but we are doing this on behalf of the world, especially Europe,” said the prime minister, stressing that had it not been for Jordan’s help, most of the refugees would have ended up in the heart of Europe.

The figures make it incumbent on the country to come up with a “new sustainable approach to deal with the refugee crisis”, one “that should not be based on humanitarian relief alone, but should also include economic development goals for the Kingdom to be able to continue carrying the burden of hosting the refugees,” according to the minister of state for media and communications, who also said that “we appreciate what the international country has provided, but we have reached our limits”.

The London conference must indeed come up with a new strategy to deal with the rising burdens and dangers posed by the Syrian refugees.

The crisis is now more complex, requiring a fresh, comprehensive approach that the entire international community must support.

The world is morally obliged to lend a solid helping hand to Jordan, as well as to Lebanon and Turkey, the countries hosting the largest number of Syrian refugees.

There is hope that the London conference will succeed in adopting new approaches in dealing with the Middle Eastern refugee crisis that are commensurate with the magnitude of the problem.