The Zaatari refugee camp. Where 80,000 Syrians dream of going home
Environment — di Andrea Barolini
Not far from the Syrian border, the Zaatari refugee camp has by now become one of the largest cities in Jordan. A place where people live on hope.
The Zaatari refugee camp. Where 80,000 Syrians dream of going home
Not far from the Syrian border, the Zaatari refugee camp has by now become one of the largest cities in Jordan. A place where people live on hope.
Zaatari is one of the most populous cities in Jordan. A city without roads, without buildings, without means of transport: it is the largest refugee camp in the country, home to tens of thousands of Syrian refugees forced to leave their land since a long and bloody war broke out in the nation governed by Bashar al Assad.
An immense expanse of prefabricated structures and tents, grey and beige, that almost blend into the vast desert surrounding them. A video published by the BBC frames the camp from above: a sea of misery broken only by the ochre colour of the sand, lost in the middle of nowhere.
Home to eighty thousand refugees
Today it is home to over eighty thousand refugees. And two thousand more arrive every day. An "open-air prison, in which – after so much waiting – the inhabitants, coming for the most part from the city of Daraa, are losing hope," as reported by the French broadcaster France24.
The camp was opened on 28 July 2012. Maintaining it today costs, according to the BBC, around 500,000 dollars a day: "500,000 loaves of bread and 4 million litres of water are distributed there every day." Among the makeshift shelters, small shops, barbers, bazaars and a supermarket have sprung up. There is even a shop renting out wedding dresses, at 20 dollars for a day. But none of this is enough to make life normal.
Some refugees have been living here for nearly three years
Zaatari is entirely dependent on humanitarian aid and the work of non-governmental organisations. These struggle to maintain acceptable conditions, especially when, in summer, the temperature rises to as high as 42 degrees Celsius, turning the tents into ovens.
An investigation by Al Jazeera, published in October 2015, tells of people who have by now been living in the camp for nearly three years. Hamdan, who arrived with his family – nine people in all – from Khirbet Ghazalah in southern Syria, recalls: "I thought we would stay for a month, two at most. Waiting for the situation to calm down." Instead, thirty months have passed. Spent in nineteen square metres, together with the other eight members of his family.