Syrian refugees in Jordan camp double

Geneva: The number of Syrians fleeing to the Al Zaatri refugee camp in Jordan has doubled in recent days, with more than 10,000 taking shelter there, the UN refugee agency said yesgerday.

“The pace of arrivals from the Syrian border to the Zaatri camp in north Jordan has doubled in the past week,” Melissa Flemming, a spokeswoman for the UN refugee agency UNHCR, told a press conference.

She said that 10,200 people had poured into the camp in the week ending on August 27, compared with 4,500 the week before. More than 22,000 Syrians have taken shelter at the Al Zaatri camp since it opened on July 30.

“Refugees say many thousands more are waiting to cross amid violence around Dara’a and we believe this could be the start of a much larger influx”.

An increasing number of refugees were unaccompanied minors, she said.

“We have received in the camp over the past week an increased number of unaccompanied children,” she said. “Some children report that their parents have died, or are staying behind in Syria to look after relatives or are working in other countries.”

She did not give any numbers for the children, but a spokesman for the UN children agency Unicef said they were estimated at several hundred.

“In Syria, there is an urgent need to find alternative shelter for the increasing number of displaced people staying in schools,” where classes are in theory due to resume on September 16, Flemming said.