JORDAN | The survey reflects views from across the Kingdom, including on refugee inclusion.
Ihab Shaban, Private Sector Partnership Officer at UNHCR Jordan, takes Ayman (53) a Syrian Refugee for a stroll before Iftar. In January 2022, Ayman had his leg amputated due to untreated diabetes. Since then he has struggled in leaving his home due to mobility issues.
95 per cent of Jordanians indicate that they are sympathetic towards refugees who fled conflict or persecution. This is the key finding of a new survey on the perception of refugees by Jordanians, commissioned by UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency. The sympathy levels confirm findings of similar studies since 2020.
91 per cent of Jordanians believe that Jordan hosts large numbers of refugees, and half of the respondents believed that the international community still needed to do more to support refugees in Jordan. Three out of four Jordanians favoured the inclusion of refugees in national systems (i.e. education and health).
“It is heart-warming to see that after all those years, Jordanians still hold empathy towards those forced to flee conflict and persecution even at a time of economic challenges”, said UNHCR Representative to Jordan, Dominik Bartsch. “The consistent level of hospitality that we see in practice every day, is truly remarkable from a global perspective.”
The survey, conducted by Headway Jordan in November 2022, reflects the views of nearly 3,300 Jordanians residing in all governorates. Earlier editions of the survey have observed the perceptions of refugees biannually since October 2020. Compared to the previous edition five months earlier, fewer Jordanians (53% vs 60%) held the view that budgets spent on refugees were high.
The survey also analysed how UNHCR is perceived. Jordanians see UNHCR as an organization that understands and feels the struggle of refugees.
ENDS
FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT
International media: Roland Schönbauer, +962 79 119 25 32, [email protected]
Jordanian media: Meshal Elfayez, +962 79 704 53 91, [email protected]
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