E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSS
NBC News
Syrian refugees Qassem and Aminaa with baby Mariam.
HAMED ONE RECEPTION CENTER, Jordan -- Just after dark on a bitterly cold January night, a truck full of refugees arrived at a reception center on the border with Syria. Carrying their belongings in suitcases and plastic bags, about 50 men, women and children climbed out of a Jordanian military vehicle.
A little girl cried while clinging to an older sister. A frail elderly man had to be helped off the truck. One teenage boy arrived without a coat and wearing plastic sandals on his bare feet.
Each new arrival was registered by the Jordanian military, given a blanket, orange juice and a bottle of water. A clinic nearby treated the sick. More than 152 people crossed at this border point on Sunday, and more than 500 refugees entered the country in just 12 hours, the Jordanian army said.
Just across the valley from the reception center is the Syrian city of Dara'a, which has experienced some of the fiercest fighting during the nearly two-year-old conflict.
Difficult terrain and fighting make the crossing to Jordan perilous.
Aminaa, 25, and her husband Qassem, 33, had just arrived with their three daughters — 2-month-old Marian, 4-year-old Shaima and 6-year-old Sham.
The family fled their home in the outskirts of Syria's capital Damascus and, after spending several weeks in Dara’a, crossed over to Jordan.
"There was shelling every day in our neighborhood," Qassem said. "I waited until I could find secure passage for us. We're apprehensive about life in Jordan but we had to leave. I carried my two daughters for a mile through the mud to get to the border.”
Most refugees declined to give their last names so as not to endanger family remaining in Syria.
Once the new arrivals were registered, the Syrians boarded a waiting bus that took them to Zaatari refugee camp, about a half hour drive away.
Jordan hosts the largest number of refugees fleeing the conflict that has raged in Syria for nearly two years and killed an estimated 60,000 people. According to United Nations refugee agency UNHCR there are nearly 176,000 registered refugees in Jordan, but the Jordanian government puts the total number at around 280,000. An estimated 10,000 new refugees arrived in the last 10 days, according to the UNHCR.
At least 600,000 refugees live in neighboring countries, mainly in Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon, the UNHCR says.
/
A look at the violence that has overtaken the country.
The population of Zaatari camp has grown to nearly 60,000 since it opened in August. Although its stated capacity is 75,000, the camp is struggling to keep up with the influx.
Last week, while aid workers and the Jordanian government were dealing with the dramatic increase in new arrivals, the first winter storm hit -- heavy rain and snow left much of the camp flooded and hundreds of tents collapsed under the weight of rain and snow.
“During the storm, the rain was pouring into our tent,” said Sahar, a mother of four from Dara’a. “We were sleeping on wet ground, on very wet blankets. Then our tent collapsed so we were evacuated to a different place.”
A riot broke out as frustrated residents demanded better living conditions at the camp. Up to eight aid workers were injured.
“People are frustrated, they have family, small children, and they’re cold,” said Rob Maroni, country director for the NGO Mercy Corps. “It’s understandable that people would be stressed and when that happens, tempers flare.”
During NBC's filming, children played on swings in a designated area managed by Mercy Corps. A group swarmed to grab used clothes being handed out by the NGO -- the clothes, and even the plastic bags they were in, were gone in a matter of seconds.
While a few lucky refugees have been moved to more secure pre-fabricated mobile units with electricity, money is needed to build more housing and improve sanitation, said Andrew Harper from UNHCR.
"People need to have a more dignified place to live,” he said. “This is now quite a large city and we need to make sure that this city has got the facilities that a population this size demands.”
“Thank God it’s warmer,” said Sahar after weather improved. “Which made our clothes and blankets dry. We pitched the tent again and we dug trenches around the tent to protect it from water, and we’re now building a tin hut to install a gas cylinder for heating. But right now all we have are blankets to keep us warm."
Qassem and Aminaa's family moved into Zaatari camp Monday morning, unpacking the family of five's one suitcase.
“In Arabic we say that the worst situations actually make you smile... so I’m smiling,” Qassem said in the tent with no electricity or heat that was their new home. “But at least we left the prospect of death in Syria. So if you escape death of course you’re happy. We know we have a difficult life ahead, but we escaped death.”
Related stories:
Destruction and resistance: Window into war-torn Aleppo
Syria rebels form their own secret police
On the move again, Syrian refugees flee flooding
Video: Dozens killed in Syria air attacks
Syrian children attend school in Aleppo despite continued bombardment, bloodshed
Leave a Comment:
It is quite kind of Jordan to give everyone a blanket and some fluids to the people that cross the boarder. I'm glad to see there is at least a little compassion over there.
Many non-Muslims have been compassionate despite being driven out by the madness of followers of Islamic cult.
"Carrying their belongings in suitcases and plastic bags, about 50 men, women and children climbed out of a Jordanian military vehicle."
In Lebanon, Muslims of all sects and tribes did this to Christians.
When the Islamic madness does not stop at non-Muslims and spreads to their own sects like Sunnis, Shiites, Sufis and so on, then they feel the pain.
What the Syrian refugess are facing are the results of the Sunni majority Syrians Islamic madness.
Jonathan - noticed you didn't have nothing bad to say about Assad the Butcher, who is commiting genocide in syria thinking only of himself. Assad set up torture chambers all across the country and torture even children that opposed his corrupted rule. Yes, the children protested against this madman dictator in the name of "freedom" and the right of the people to select the leader of "their" choosing instead of a dictator electing himself while using stalin's logic "kill and/or imprison all those that opposed his corrupted rule. This conflict is about people of syria winning their freedom and rights from a evil mass murdering dictator
John M: As I don't see anything good in any Sunni rulers of House of Saud, Qatar, Kuwait, UAE and other Sunni Arab League nations, I don't see too many bad things in Assad.
There are many who consider it a privilege to fix the golden toilets of Kuwaiti ruler with 65 wives at one time and save House of Saud without Bibles!
What can you say of such people?
I don't see too many bad things in Assad.
Even our NATO ally Turkey know what is up:
http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/turkey-assad-regime-is-committing-war-crimes-in-syria-1.495901
So choose to be blind if you want to be.
Are we supposed to feel sorry for these people ? I guess the question should be asked of them that if they are relocated to another country, would they mind living next to a Jewish person or a Christian. Also ask if they are willing to denounce the hate preaching in their Koran.
No sir!
When it comes to non-Muslims they are all one! Just examine the video on Mohammed case.
In Syria, if Assad is overthrown by Sunni Islamic religious Nazis like al-Qaida, MB, the conditions of sane Muslims, females, minority tribes like Kurds, Christians will be unbearable just like Iraq.
Followers of Islamic cult, especially House of Saud and other Sunni ME rulers inspired and funded Sunni Islamic radicals and militants (al-Qaida, Salaffi, Wahhabi, MB, Taliban and other label ones), are fast marching backwards to their seventh century desert tribal days.
They are indulging in rapings, lootings, killings and genocides of non-Muslims (Darfur, S. Sudan, Nigeria and spreading like wild fire in many regions and Muslims (Libya, Yemen, Mali, Iraq, Syria, Pakistan, Afghanistan and other places).
In Egypt, the Sunni extremists with labels like Salaffi and MB (Muslim Bloodhounds) are opening up new chapters of Islamic bigotry. Morsi is just a front for them.
Just watch the fate of sane Muslims, minority sect/tribe people, Christians, women and Israel as the time goes by.
Pakis and Sunni rulers of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, UAE and other Sunni Arab League nations are responsible for 80 percent of world problems including economic ones.
Examine the devastations with Iraqi wars and now sanctions on Iranian oil and the resultant oil price manipulations.
They are making the lives of their own people also miserable by their Islamic religious madness to the intolerable levels.
SYRIA IS ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF ISLAMIC RELIGIOUS MADNESS ON RAMPAGE ALL OVER THE WORLD.
Hawkey and Jonathan,
If you're looking to see what's wrong with America take a look in the mirror. People who can't see the difference between extremists within a faith and the faith itself is why we have so many problems in the world.
Well said....Thank you
Amen to that, cgtrav!
Hawkeyez31,the Syrians want their freedom from a tyrant dictator who he has had incarcerated,tortured and murdered.This war is not about religion.It is about freedom to elect their leader.The Syrian people want the same things as most people in the world.They are not religious zealots.
Also ask if they are willing to denounce the hate preaching in their Koran.
So your condition of taking refugees should be for people to give up their religion?
That's pretty much the most unAmerican sentiment I have ever heard of.
OH, are we suppose to feel sorry for these people? I don't, and I bet if every American was honest they would say the same. They have Obama to blame for this. HE sent secret weapons to the so called rebels who are and have been nothing more than terrorists.
Had Obama not done that, that civil war would have ended in a week. NOBODY is more to blame than OBAMA.
The racist islamics will try to invade Europe. They will suck up social services and procreate then DEMAND rights they would not give to others in their nations.
EUROPEAN WOMEN NEED TO START HAVING MORE CHILDREN.
Hey Steven, dont hold back on your hate for our President, let it all out. Im sure the President is to blame for every bad thing that happens and never responsible for any good. Your unbiased thinking is apparent to all.
We are supposed to be broke how much money is Obama sending to this country. He is helping other countries while this country may go down in the dumps..
I though that the mess in Syria a popular movement of the people to set the country free. Well, I guess they don't like being free. Maybe they prefer a stable government, like the one they had, to the ciaos that has been forced upon them.
The attack on the Syrian people has Obama's finger prints all over it. It's part of 'Arab Spring'. And the Arab Spring is the result of Obama's policy to support change rather than stability in the governments in the Middle East. It is little wonder that the Arabs hate us.
Bill- Arab Spring has nothing to do with Obama, it just your hate for a black president who is doing a excellent job as a american president. Former president Bush drove the country down the tube sucking up to the elites of his clan, and now Obama is fixing his outrageous mess up, deal with it. (btw, I'm white)
Arab Spring, was born by a fruit vendor in Tunsia (not Obama as you falsely claim b/c of your prejudice) and if arabs hate us, it b/c of "Bush." Due to the technology advancements (such as cell phones and internet) people in those oppressed countries in that region that are or were run by a dictator, could see the freedom and rights that people in free countries enjoy and they wanted to be free and enjoy the rights that they were being denied of by a greedy dictator stealing the countries revenues for their own gain, while oppressing the people and their rights along with their freedom
Bill H,You called being ruled by a murderous dictator stable?
I don’t care what happened to Muslim refugees, I don’t want my taxpayer money wasted there, once Muslim refugees recover and feel good then they will start killing and hating and repressing everyone else.
Steven100-(OH, are we suppose to feel sorry for these people? I don't, and I bet if every American was honest they would say the same)
It is arrogant of you to think you speak for all Americans. Please do try to remember, you only represent yourself, your experiences in life, value system,principals you have chosen to follow in life and the values you place upon anyone else in life.Life and truths as you see them as applied to everyone else is solely from your own reality and paradigm.
G000 -(I don’t care what happened to Muslim refugees, I don’t want my taxpayer money wasted there, once Muslim refugees recover and feel good then they will start killing and hating and repressing everyone else.)
When the world turns away from what is happening to those too weak to defend themselves, where does its responsibility truly begin? That was how the Holocaust of 13 million took place, Stalin killed 50 million Christians, Rwanda's massacre of and estimated million men, women and children took place in 90 days.
It was people who said, it's not my problem, I don't like those people, they are people who believe things I don't like, or deserve to die.
If others who have the power to stop injustices, do nothing when it is committed, then what does that make them in the end morally?Using the excuse, only when it becomes my problem will I care.For evil will not stay its hand but come with raised swords to slay those, in a time they know not. Do not discount such who may now be weak, from becoming strong and remembering those who stood by them. The lessons are in history.
For all those who believe Islam is just an evil religion, check out The House of Wisdom. How much the world has profited. We must not, in our fear of those who are extremists, lump everyone into one basket and turn our backs and hearts.
That is what ignorance, and terrorists would love the west to do.Have us frightened, like children hovering in the dark.Pointing at anyone from the Middle East, with suspicion. We must be better then that and demonstrate that in a country which proclaims so many freedoms, we have freedom from prejudice, bigotry, ignorance and hatred.That is how we win the war on terror in our lives.
WAYYY too long dude, posts not novels.
History has seen that religious madness is the worst of all. Most non Islamic religions and its followers have learnt lessons from them.
Ironically, even in 21st century, Islamic religious madness is in full swing all over the world.
In Syria, Assad is comparatively a far better leader than most of the ME Muslim rulers.
Look at that House of Saud for example.
In Syria Sunnis don't want a non-Sunni ruler.
At the same time, Sunnis want a Sunni ruler in Shiite majority Bahrain.
Fountainheads of Sunni Islamic extremist barbarism and beastly actions are the Sunni rulers of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, UAE and other Sunni Arab League nations and Pakistan.
They were the inentors, funders, promoters and exporters of Sunni extremist Salaffi and Wahhabi versions through their mosques all over the world.
They are cutting themselves with their religious madness.
Even the US, British, oil companies, Netanyahus, lobbyists, paid servants like those of UN and its agencies can't save them from their own hara-kari!
same arguement was made on behalf of Gadhafi (did you support Gadhafi too?) Your claim is bogus in support of a mass murdering dictator who is only thinking of himself as he kills tens of thousands in effort to cling on to his power (which he will lose in the end and is heading to end up like Gadhafi (well deserved) if the people of syria don't hang him if Assad the Butcher is lucky enough to get a trial for his genocide against the people of syria.
syrians should "Saddam" Assad before he gets a "Gadhafi"
John M: If we don't keep away, Benghazi, Somalia, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Iraq will be repeated.
Some don't care as they don't get hurt.
This old fart's heart goes out to the people.
You have to feel sorry for Jordan, when the Israelis kicked out the Palestine's from Israel they settled in Jordan, now the Syrians, seems like every refugee ends up there from the middle east.
Can't we borrow money from some country to send to these people?
Do you borrow money on your credit card then give the money away; then borrow more, on and on!!
Washington isn't broke, we are!!
Isn't Jordan an oil rich nation, as is the case with others in that global region!!? Why don't these refugees from Syria have the best of accommodations? Is sectarian bias in play here?
As usual most of those commenting don't seem to have researched what is going on. The Assad government was not tormenting its people. The Christians could practice without threats of being killed. Once again msnbc and its elites that run it have us seeing almost all Muslims as "those vicious Muslims are at it again" when it never started this way. Syria has its own banking system and does not want this new world order stepping in telling it to get in line and come under control of international banking. They do a lot of other things their own way and had a somewhat secular state running where almost all people were free to do as they pleased.
These freedom fighters are given this title by the mainstream media. The majority of them are ignorant and quite a few are just plain criminals and murderers. Because NATO tells Assad to step down, he should? The USA and England and others started this all and led to the misery of the Syrian people. We had Hilary Clinton telling us her version or the untruth. Hilary feels nothing in killing others yet she and Bill during the Vietnam years crucified those of us who were in the military back then. The hate shown on Hilary's face back in the Vietnam days is unforgettable. She was a college brat-an Ivy League know-it-all - who knew little. The Vietnam War may have been a big mistake but now Hilary is in a key position and thinks nothing or issuing terror and destruction to lots of innocent people. But what the heck, most of us have had to work ourselves into the ground most ofour lives so we can live off social security while now the Clintons and their kind are filthy rich. It was Hilary who said about Khaddafi while he was being killed "we came, we saw, we killed him".
What leadership.
Well said!
I hope these people are successful in fleeing and starting a new life in peace. I hope they find proper shelter and jobs in a new location.
I feel so thankful to wake up with a roof over my head, a job to go to and people who love me in my life. We can't take these things for granted.
I suppose our govt wants to "liberate" the Syrian people like we helped "liberate" Egypt? What a joke.
the joke is you, the people of Egypt liberated themselves just as the people of syria (not our gov.) are trying to do to win the freedom and rights like the right to elect the leader of their choosing instead of a dictator electing himself while oppressing the people.
Compare this writing to the prophecy in Matthew 24,KJV. If the events most recently match this prophecy, credit Jesus Christ. If the sudden appearence of a Jewish nation in the middle of Muslim nations, which are antagonistic toward it, is surprising , credit the creator whose fore-knowledge was revealed to Ezekiel in the Dry Bones prophecy. Between the resurrection of Israel in 1948 and today, Israel has enjoyed a remarkable string of victories, while the military super-power of our time, the USA, has not prevailed once. The undeniable fact is that these are extraordinary times that were foretold through the inspiration of a higher power, one that encompassed the whole history of ADAM and his seed. Blind humanity might miss this but, Israel should not unless they are blinded by their sin and that of their ancestors who killed the Son of God and then stole his estate(Israel). Questioned by his Disciples as to his return, Jesus related the circumstances we call TODAY.
@Bobert. True, but Isreal is no longer God's chosen people or nation. However any one from any nation can turn
to and serve God. It's open to all. Matt. 24 does shed light on today. Jesus is ruling in the heavens in behalf of his
Father. And, he will render judgement at the father's appointed time.
I wish the best for these refugees.Take a moment and think about how you would feel if you had to flee the U.S. into Canada or Mexico with very few of your possessions.You had to leave your home because it was bombed into rubble as was your vehicle.Your mother and father were elderly and couldn't make that trip with you to safety.You have no job,no home,no money and are hoping to be able to return home one day and go on with your life as before even though you know it may never happens.you are hoping that the host country will accept you and treat you well helping you to find work and a place to live.I cannot imagine hat people in some of these @!$%#ries have been through and thank my lucky stars to be able to have been born in America.
My heart aches for the people of Syria and rejoices for the surrounding countries who extend their hands and hearts to the refugees.
We must always extend kindness to those less fortunate than ourselves, to those in harms way, to those recovering from a disaster.
Love thy neighbor ~ it starts with your heart.