Humanitarian agencies claim Jordan’s border closed to refugees

Jordan has closed its border to Syrian refugees, humanitarian agencies said Wednesday.

“We have not recorded any Syrian refugees crossing into Jordan in the past week,” said Andrew Harper of the United Nations refugee agency in Jordan.

The International Organization for Migration, an aid agency based in Geneva, Switzerland, noted it had not transported Syrian refugees across the Jordanian border since Oct. 1.

Jordan is part of the coalition engaged in airstrikes against the Islamic State, and analysts believe a threat from IS and other Islamist groups may have caused stricter border controls to be practiced.

“Tightening the border is a logical reaction from the government’s perspective, especially because the Nusra Front, Al Qaeda’s wing in Syria, is on its border, and they are being targeted by the U.S./Arab-led coalition against ISIS,” said Manar Rachwani, a columnist for Jordan’s independent newspaper Al Ghad.

Mohammad Momani, a spokesman for the Jordanian government, said the border has not been closed, noting, “There is no change on our open-border policy. Those who are injured, women and children, continue to cross, but the numbers of those entering are subject to the security assessment in the field.”

The number of refugees heading to Jordan from Syria has fallen from about 2,000 per day in the middle of 2013, to several hundred per day until last week, when it halted.

The IOM, citing United Nations figures, said on its website Jordan is hosting an estimated 618,000 Syrian refugees. Over three million Syrians have fled their country’s civil war to neighboring countries.