Attachments
Access to Safe, Accordable, and Durable Housing
Jordan currently hosts some 732,000 refugees with around 130,000 Syrian refugees living in two refugee camps - Zaatari and Azraq. As a refugee response coordinator, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, along with the Syrian Refugees Affairs Directorate (SRAD) of the Government of Jordan, is responsible for providing refugees in the camps with shelters and managing the campsites. The Agency also provides the refugees living in urban areas with basic cash assistance to meet their basic needs including housing.
From Tents to Caravans. UNHCR provides shelter to all refugees living in camps. A family of up to five members receives a caravan made out of metal sheet, size of 21m² in Zaatari and 24m² in Azraq. There are currently 25,000 and 12,000 shelters in Zaatari and Azraq camps, respectively, while the rest of the caravans are used as shops, office facilities, etc. Some caravans have been adjusted to address the needs of those with special needs (e.g., concrete slabs for enhanced accessibility, private latrines,
etc.) UNHCR provided most of the caravans in 2012 when it shifted from providing tents to caravans and now most of them are well over their lifespan of five to six years.
Many refugees live in shelters that are degraded with cracks and moulds and need to be maintained or replaced.
Currently, around 19,000 shelters need some level of maintenance and support. UNHCR and its partner, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), have established a quick-fix team to address these needs based on vulnerability criteria. So far, in 2023, the team has provided around 470 new shelters, repaired about 800, and rehabilitated 500. However, limited funding meant that UNHCR could only meet half of the critical needs in 2023. On top of providing direct shelter support, UNHCR and NRC also work with refugees to promote their self-reliance. They give the refugees material, incentives, and training to strengthen their capacity to fix caravans independently with the technical team's guidance.
Initially designed as part of an emergency response more than ten years ago, the camps have become overcrowded, and efforts to improve refugees' living situations are needed, such as installing room partitions for increased privacy and enhancing thermal insulation and fire retardancy. Fire incidents in the camps have become a recurring threat. UNHCR and its partners continue to raise awareness on fire safety