Jordanians 'at boiling point' over refugees

King Abdullah of Jordan said his country is at "boiling point" because of an influx of hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees.

Ahead of a donor conference on Syria, the king told the BBC that there was enormous pressure on Jordan's social services, infrastructure and economy.
"Sooner or later, I think, the dam is going to burst," he warned.

He said the international community would have to offer more help if it wanted Jordan to keep taking refugees.

King Abdullah said Jordanians were suffering as a result of the influx, with 25% of the state budget spent on helping refugees, public services under strain and many struggling to find jobs.

"The psyche of the Jordanian people, I think it's gotten to boiling point," he said.

King Abdullah rejected criticism from the international community over Jordan's reluctance to admit some 16,000 Syrian refugees who are stranded in a remote desert area on its northern border.

King Abdullah said he hoped that the threat posed by IS to the world would convince Syrian government and opposition representatives attending talks in Geneva, as well as their backers in Moscow and Washington, of the urgent need for a political solution to the conflict in Syria.

The UN is seeking dlrs 7.7 bn to fund aid operations for 22.5 million people in Syria and neighboring countries next year. However, only 43% of its 2015 appeal for dlrs 2.9 billion was funded.

Source: MENA