AMMAN — Jordan has said that the world community’s failure to aptly address the refugee plight has led to the ongoing crisis, when Europe is facing a dilemma caused by floods of Syrian and other refugees seeking better lives in the free world.

In a statement, Minister of State for Media Affairs and Communications Mohammad Momani described the suffering of refugees and the death of thousands of them while pursuing their goal as a “disgrace to humanity”.

“Jordan has always warned and sounded the alarm over the consequences of the world’s failure to fulfil its humanitarian and moral duty of helping refugees at home and in host countries to prevent any aggravation in the crisis and its impact on regional and global security and stability,” Momani said.

“On the other hand,” he added, “at a time we see the world struggling to address the security and political aspects of the refugee crisis, we find that several world countries are not providing enough assistance to sustain the World Food Programme, the UNRWA or any other concerned international programmes. What do we expect from a refugee when he is told by the world that it is not going to feed him?” 

Jordan’s case is different, according to Momani, who is also government spokesperson.

“Jordan is proud of its track record regarding hosting and helping refugees. This is a Hashemite Jordanian message honoured for centuries, starting from the time when Bani Hashem undertook Siqaya and Rifada [providing pilgrims to Mecca with water and food in the pre-Islamic era].”

History will remember Jordan as a country that opened its doors to those who sought its help across its history, including the latest chapter when it hosted more than 1.4 million Syrians, who constitute more than 20 per cent of its population, the minister added.

“Jordanians are proud that their country has surpassed capable and great countries in this noble effort,” Momani concluded. 

The minister’s statement came as Europe was still struggling with an overwhelming influx of refugees, especially from the war-torn Syria.

Austria and Germany threw open their borders to thousands of exhausted migrants on Saturday, bussed to the Hungarian border by a right-wing government that had tried to stop them but was overwhelmed by the sheer numbers reaching Europe’s frontiers, Reuters reported.

Left to walk the last yards into Austria, rain-soaked migrants, many of them refugees from Syria’s civil war, were whisked by train and shuttle bus to Vienna, where authorities arranged for thousands to head straight on to Germany.

Pressure to take effective action rose sharply last week after pictures flashed around the world of the body of a three-year-old Syrian Kurdish boy washed up on a Turkish resort beach, personalising the collective tragedy of the refugees. 

 

Aylan Kurdi had drowned along with his mother and brother while trying to cross by boat on a tiny rubber dinghy to a Greek island.