Brussels, 03/06/2013 (Agence Europe) - According to an announcement made on Monday 3 June by European Commissioner for Neighbourhood Policy Stefan Füle, during a visit to Amman, the European Union is to provide additional assistance of €50 million to Jordan “to alleviate the impact of the high influx of refugees from Syria”.
Half of this €50 million envelope will be will be mobilised “very quickly” and will help Jordanian authorities with the education of Syrian refugee children in Jordan. Out of this support, €5 million will be allocated to UNICEF to continue the education of Syrian refugee children in the Jordanian refugee camps. A further amount of €25 million will be made available “in the coming months” and will mainly support the Jordanian government in providing health services to refugees. These funds will also help towards developing additional support for UNICEF. The Commission explained that “the economic development of the northern areas of Jordan, where the local population is particularly affected by the presence of refugees, is likely to be supported”. With this additional funding, the total amount of financial assistance provided by the European Commission stands at €137 million. At the end of May 2013, 489,000 Syrian refugees were registered as refugees in the country, corresponding to around 8% of the entire Jordanian population. (CG/transl.fl)