Jordan has a long history of being a place of refuge, and there are many Palestinians here who are or were refugees. Indeed a high proportion of the Jordanian population are Palestinian … though as the definition of “Palestinian” is complex (as historically the concept of “Palestinian” predates that of “Jordanian”) I’m going to avoid numbers or proportions ...

About two million Syrian refugees have gone to Turkey, 1.4 million to Lebanon and between 0.65 and 1.2 million to Jordan (depending on whether you look at numbers of registered refugees only, or include non-registered refugees also). These figures will vary depending on where you look or who you listen to ...

Refugees living outside the camps have much greater vulnerability and less ease of access to health services and probably to other services too, making them an important group for MSF to reach out to. And those who are without the right papers from the Ministry of the Interior and UNHCR are, I think, even more vulnerable as they have no rights at all to most health care.

In addition to these difficulties, the interplay of depression / post-traumatic stress disorder and the high prevalence of diabetes, heart disease and chronic breathing problems in the Syrian population makes working in non-communicable diseases really important … Which is why the MSF project I’m joining is here, reaching out to the most vulnerable of the 20% of Syrian refugees in Jordan who are in the Irbid area. We also ensure that (in line with national requirements) 30% of our patients are vulnerable Jordanians.

Read the full article about the refugee crisis in Jordan by Mike Tomson at Doctors without borders.