Syrian Refugees in Jordan: Shrinking access to services under a limited legal status

Transcription

1 Syrian Refugees in Jordan: Shrinking access to services under a limited legal status December 2016 Introduction The consequences of the Syria conflict have continued to impact Jordan in 2016, with 655,404 Syrians registered with UNHCR as of 4 December. 1 While traditionally, refugees were coming i from the neighbouring Dara a Governorate, Jordan witnessed a major influx in 2016, with refugees arriving from Governorates as far away as Hama and Aleppo. This shift in Governorate of origin is one of many factors that led to increased restrictions on the ability of new Syrian asylum seekers to access Jordan until the complete closure of its border with Syria on 21 June 2016 after a suicide-bomb attack in Rukban. Currently 141,000 Syrian refugees are registered as living in the formal camps of Zaatari, Azraq and Emirati Jordanian camp (EJC) and rely on the governmental and non-governmental actors to provide them with basic protection and services. The situation in the camps for Syrian refugees who have managed to enter Jordan between March and May 2016 is extremely difficult; there are over 13,000 who remain in the barb-wire fenced area of Azraq camp (Village 5) without any possibility of leaving this confined area until they are screened out by the Jordanian authorities. This has proven to be a long, tedious and opaque process. While refugees in camps report that their main challenges include safety concerns, limited access to electricity and lack of income generating opportunities, the situation is also precarious for the 515,000 registered Syrian refugees living in Jordanian host communities (outside of camps). A recent survey in the urban areas of Amman, Irbid and Mafraq found that 87% of Syrian refugee families were in debt, 10% removed children from school to save educational expenses, 6% put their children to work and 3% married off their daughters. 2 These findings confirm the deteriorating economic situation for Syrian refugees, with a large part of the refugee population dependent on humanitarian handouts. As of the end of September 2016 the World Food Programme (WFP) was distributing monthly cash-based food support (20 JOD), to 220,926 extremely vulnerable Syrian refugees and 202,744 vulnerable Syrian refugees (10 JOD) living in host communities. 3 Food security remains below the 2014 levels. 4 Since the MOH s decision in November 2014 to stop offering free healthcare for registered Syrians living in host communities, Syrians have had to pay a subsidised rate many cannot afford, with additional fees for medication and transport on a monthly basis. Over half of all urban Syrian refugees between the ages of 18 and 59 suffer from chronic health conditions including diabetes, hypertension, thyroid problems and cancer. 5 Financial constraints represent the most significant barrier to children s enrolment in schools and are the major determinant for school dropouts, particularly for boys in secondary education, as their income often represents a sizeable contribution to their household s income. Approximately 154,000 Syrian school-aged children are not enrolled in formal education and at least 5,300 Syrian children have quit school since their arrival to Jordan due to financial constraints. 6 The February 2016 London conference marked a significant milestone in the international commitment to supporting countries impacted by the Syria conflict and saw the government of Jordan presenting an unprecedented and ambitious plan to improve the living conditions of Syrian refugees in Jordan. The Jordan Compact commits the Government of Jordan to ensure that all school-aged children have access to education and 200,000 Syrian refugees benefit from legal employment opportunities. As of 7 December 2016, 34,467 Syrians had received a work permit against the annual plan of 50, Syrians now represent 10% of the total number of foreign workers which is a notable increase from the 2% before the London conference. Despite the positive efforts, the number of issued work permits is lower than expected mainly due to a largely unchanged legislative framework, continued complicated administrative procedures in most sectors as well as a variety of misperceptions among refugees and potential employers. Syrian refugees in Jordan continue to face multiple protection challenges related to limited legal status, and this brief focuses on the impact on Syrian refugees, particularly their ability to access services. 1

2 Access to Jordan On 21 June 2016 the GoJ officially announced the closure of its border in the aftermath of a suicide-bomb attack at its north-eastern border in Rukban. Three and a half months prior to the border closure, Jordan had seen a significant surge of new asylum seekers with 21,700 arrivals to Azraq camp after what had been three years of tight border restrictions introduced in early The number of Syrians stranded at the only two informal border crossings in Rukban and Hadalat (aka the berm ) had been increasing since mid In August 2015, between 3,500 and 4,000 people were presumed to be at the berm with a maximum of 50 allowed into Jordan daily. In January 2016, their number reached 13,500, and then increased to an estimated 45,000 as of early March, following Syrian civilians movement away from the sealed Turkish border towards southern Syria. The GoJ agreed to take in approximately 20,000 people from the berm, but decided to only allowed them into the fenced-in sections of Azraq camp in order to continue their security screening once in the camp. All new arrivals, after spending several days in the reception areas were moved to the fenced-in areas, where they were to undergo another screening before being allowed to access the unfenced areas of the camp. The screening criteria and relocation procedures have still not been communicated to the international community, with the screening process itself being very slow. As of 7 November, i.e. 5-8 months after their arrival to the camp, close to 13,500 asylum seekers were still residing in the fenced areas of the camp. At the current screening rate, it will take over a year to screen all refugees currently residing in the fenced-in area (Village 5). During the first two weeks of March 2016, UNHCR reported that approximately 25% of asylum-seekers coming from the berm were denied entry at the registration centre at Rabaa Al Sarhan. These figures were not reported regularly by the government and NGO evidence suggests that the refoulement rates of new arrivals from the berm, before their arrival to Azraq, may have fluctuated between 5% and 30% daily, with the vast majority having been denied entry because they had been registered in and left Jordan previously. There is no data available to show how many refugees were deported after their arrival to Azraq. About 350 asylum seekers admitted to Jordan in June continue to reside in the temporary transit area in Ruweyshid that was never meant to provide long-term accommodation. An estimated 70,000-85,000 people are stranded in the middle of the desert at the north-eastern border with up to 80% thought to be women and children.8 Not all intend to cross to Jordan and have decided to seek refuge in the proximity of the border in search of safety. For those who are hoping to be allowed in, there is no indication that a large number of asylum-seekers will be allowed in Jordan in the near future. 2 Challenges for Syrian refugees to remain registered The Jordanian authorities require all refugees to register with the Ministry of Interior (MoI) and be issued a biometric service card. Syrian refugees also register with UNHCR and are issued either a proof of registration in formal camps or asylum seeker certificate (ASC) if they reside in host communities. Without updated registration, Syrian refugees are not able to legally stay in their current place of residence, access public services and humanitarian assistance or register births, deaths and marriages. They are also at risk of involuntary relocation to the camps or refoulement if they cannot demonstrate that they left the camp through the formal bail-out procedure. This procedure was introduced in July 2014 and officially suspended in early 2015, a few months after the GoJ formally requested UNHCR to stop issuing Asylum Seeker Certificates (ASC) to Syrian refugees who had left the camps outside of the bail-out system. According to the Syrian Refugee Affairs Directorate (SRAD), between 26 August 2015 and 31 October 2016, 936 bailouts were granted for residents of Azraq camp and those were for exceptional circumstances.9 At least 17,000 refugees who left Azraq camp outside of the bailout procedure since the camp opened in April 2014, have been deprived of the possibility to register with UNHCR or MoI in the host communities and hence have no access to formal assistance.10 The ability to maintain or update their ASC and MOI card is crucial for Syrian refugees as many lack original identity documents that were confiscated from them upon entry to Jordan. As of September 2016, there were still over 37,000 documents to be returned to Syrian refugees as part of the Urban Verification Exercise (UVE).11 With the bailout process from the camps having been effectively suspended, there is presently no legal way for refugees residing in the camps to leave the camp permanently and live in host communities, save for a very few individual exceptions where refugees are allowed to leave the camps to be united with their families or undergo long-term medical treatment that is unavailable in the camp.

3 Consequences of limited legal status Access to essential services Without an ASC, a Syrian refugee is either registered as residing in the camp or not registered at all as a person of concern to UNHCR, and hence is not eligible to access any services that are based on UNHCR s refugee registration database, which effectively includes any international assistance. Without an updated MoI card, out-of-camp Syrian refugees are not able to access subsidised public health services which leaves them with few available options to access medical care ranging from seeking expensive medical assistance from private medical providers to asking for medical advice at a pharmacy, or finding care free of charge from the few health NGOs offering such services. While the Minister of Education has officially confirmed that MoI cards will no longer be needed for children to enrol in public schools, barriers are still reported at the local level with school principals turning down children without updated MoI cards. In a recent survey conducted by an INGO in the education sector, 90% of students were asked to provide the school with a copy of their new MoI card.12 Registering births, deaths and marriages Syrian refugees who have not been able to retrieve their confiscated documents during the UVE, or Syrians without an updated MoI card, face difficulties registering birth, deaths and marriages with Jordanian authorities. Some Syrians who are registered and have an updated MoI card struggle to obtain civil documentation if they are not able to present the appropriate civil or identity document. As an example, a Syrian father who has an updated MOI card still cannot obtain a birth certificate for a child born in Jordan if he cannot produce his marriage certificate or family book from Syria. In many cases, the documents were destroyed during the conflict. A Syrian refugee mother was not able to obtain a birth notification for her newborn daughter despite the fact that both her husband and she had MoI cards, because they could not produce a marriage certificate at the public hospital; they were married in a religious ceremony in Syria so don t have a certificate. As a result, her daughter could not be vaccinated and is not able to access any services. The parents have no way to prove that she is their child and are wondering what will happen when the time comes to return to Syria. 3 NRC reports that it has provided more than 23,000 Syrians in host communities of Irbid, Jerash and Amman with legal assistance and counselling since 2013, primarily in the area of access to civil documentation, the majority of those cases relating to birth certificates.13 Civil documentation processes require Syrian refugees to submit applications to local and national authorities, and in some cases, go through civil and religious court procedures to ascertain judicial facts, in addition to producing official Syrian identity documents. Many of the obstacles faced by Syrian refugees during civil documentation procedures are related to their lack of official Syrian identity documents either because they were confiscated by Jordanian authorities, they were destroyed in Syria during the conflict, or the refugees come from parts of Syria where identity documents could not be produced. In some cases, the refugees were too young to have a Syrian identity card at the time they entered Jordan. Involuntary relocation to the camps and risk of deportation Refugees living in urban areas without an updated MoI service card are increasingly at risk of being involuntarily relocated to camps. Since April 2014 close to 20,000 Syrian refugees have been involuntary relocated to Zaatari and Azraq camps by the police, largely because of their inability to prove that they had left camps through the official bailout system. A Syrian family entered Jordan in They left Zaatari camp on bailout. Their son joined from Syria a few months later. He was arrested during a random police check and sent to Rabah Sarhan. There, he was threatened to be deported to Syria if his family did not agree to relocate with him to Azraq camp. Both the mother and son are now living in Azraq, while the father and the rest of the children live in host communities. Though very limited information on refoulement is available, numerous cases have been reported of individual Syrian refugees being detained and deported back to Syria, with a noticeable increase since May Several INGOs have documented detention and deportation cases amongst their beneficiaries and staff in the camps. The fact that many of them are families who have lived in the camps for many years is concerning.

4 Risk of statelessness A lack of civil documentation increases the risk of statelessness. Jordan has not ratified either of the Statelessness Conventions and does not have a legal framework to address this issue. 15 The risk of statelessness is particularly high for Syrian refugee children born in Jordan without a birth notification. Nationality in Syria is passed through the father (ius sanguini) and husbandless mothers of undocumented children are not able to pass their nationality on to their children. A Syrian mother living with her son in Irbid is worried about his future for many reasons. When she crossed from Syria to Jordan, she was pregnant. Her husband stayed behind in Syria but she has no idea of his whereabouts now. She cannot register her son s birth in Jordan and transmit nationality to her son who was born in Jordan. Her biggest fear is that her son will never be allowed to enter Syria if he cannot prove that he is Syrian. Urban verification exercise (UVE) The Urban Verification Exercise (UVE) for all Syrian nationals (refugees and non-refugees) to re-register in host communities has been ongoing since February Within the UVE, all Syrian nationals are required to present themselves to local police stations to obtain new biometric MoI service cards and confirm their place of residence. The exercise should allow for the eventual return of all Syrian identity documents withheld by the Jordanian authorities at the border as well as the regularisation of the status of refugees who have left the camp outside of the bail out system if they hold an ASC. To obtain the new cards, refugees above 12 years of age must obtain a health certificate from the Ministry of Health (MoH) which they must present, along with a confirmation of residence (certified lease agreement, non-certified lease agreement with the presence of the landlord or a proof of place of residency issued by UNHCR), to their nearest police station. The requirement to provide a certified lease agreement or to ensure the presence of the landlord at the police station has hindered refugees from being able to register. Up until November 2015 refugees had to pay 30 JOD per person to obtain the health certificate. Since then, the MOH has agreed to lower the fee to 5 JOD for Syrian refugees. The cost of obtaining the health certificate had been a prohibitive factor for Syrian refugees to regularise their status in host communities and is still occasionally reported as an issue, especially in larger families who prefer to process all family members through the UVE at the same time. Syrian refugees in northern Jordan have reported to INGOs that primary health care clinics and school principals in their area are already requesting new MoI service cards before providing assistance at the subsidised rate or enrolling children in school. The Civil Status Department only accepts a new MoI service card as proof of identification required for a parent to register their child s birth. As of November 2016, over 375,000 Syrian refugees had updated their MOI card, while over 143,000 individuals have not completed their UVE process according to UNHCR. Legal aid agencies believe that this is largely due to the continued complexity of the process and the fact that the remaining families face additional challenges related to family composition, civil documentation and related issues that make some of the UVE requirements prohibitive; and risks exacerbating existing vulnerabilities due to a lack of access to assistance and services for those who fail to complete the UVE. 4

5 Key recommendations Access to Jordan The international community has to support Jordan to ensure that those fleeing conflict and persecution inside Syria can exercise their right to seek asylum without discrimination. Registration of asylum seekers at the berm should resume and the most vulnerable should be allowed admission into Jordan. This cannot happen without the support of the international community. Asylum seekers already admitted to Jordan need to be provided with dignified living conditions and sufficient assistance. This includes the approximately 350 asylum seekers in the Ruweyshid transit centre, who should be moved to proper longer-term accommodation, as well as refugees currently residing in the fenced-in area in Azraq camp, where screening needs to be expedited within a reasonable and predictable timeframe. Rules and procedures surrounding deportation (refoulement) of Syrian refugees need to be clarified, strengthened and communicated; these should be followed by regular reporting routines analysing procedures and trends. Predictable redress mechanisms must be established for refugees to appeal against deportation decisions. Limited legal status The international community should continue to support Jordan in hosting high numbers of refugees in line with the Jordan Compact and Jordan Response Plan priorities. Registration and civil documentation procedures need to facilitate freedom of movement while maintaining up-to-date registration. This includes procedures for Syrian refugees to formally leave refugee camps through re-introduction of the bailout system or a similar procedure. The international community must support the GoJ to ensure permissive registration procedures for Syrian refugees in host communities. This includes a review of the ongoing urban verification exercise and ensuring that those who have not been able to re-register can do so with a particular focus on those who left the camps outside the procedures. Registration of as many refugees as possible at their current places of residence will allow for accurate data on the number and location of refugees in Jordan. It will also support refugees access to assistance and services offered by humanitarian partners, thereby mitigating vulnerabilities and negative coping mechanisms. The international community must support the GoJ to adjust administrative procedures to allow refugees to obtain and retain civil documentation (marriage, birth certificates etc.). This includes accommodating Syrian refugees who lack original Syrian identity documents and separating out civil documentation procedures from registration status. 5

6 References 1. UNHCR total persons of concerns in Jordan as of 30 November See: 2. FACTSHEET: Care Jordan Syria refugee and Jordanian host households. Survey results in brief July WFP Jordan Country Brief, September See: 4. The third annual edition of the WFP/REACH nationwide assessment of Syrian refugees food security monitoring. 5. UNHCR Jordan Non-Camp Refugees Report See: UNHCR Jordan Non-Camp Refugees Report See: 6. UNICEF Running on Empty the situation of Syrian children living in host communities in Jordan May See: 7. Minutes from Livelihoods Working Group, 3 November Jordan Refugee Response: resuming life-saving assistance at the berm, November Data compiled from Azraq CCM meeting up to October NRC IHRC Securing Status Syrian refugees and the documentation of legal status, identity, and family relationships in Jordan, November See: dentity-and-family-relationships-in-jordan/ 11. UNHCR Statistical trends, September NRC Back to school campaign - October NRC ISC Understanding statelessness in the Syria refugee context- November See: UNHCR Statistical trends, September NRC ISC Understanding statelessness in the Syria refugee context- November See: 6