Azraq camp now housing over 6,000 Syrians — UNHCR

AMMAN — The Azraq Refugee Camp, which was officially opened in the beginning of this month, is currently home to more than 6,000 Syrian refugees, according to Andrew Harper, UNHCR representative to Jordan.

In one of his tweets on Sunday, Harper said the camp now hosts 6,455 refugees.

Of the total residents of the camp, he added, 53 per cent are children, 20 per cent of whom are less than five years old.

According to Harper’s tweet, 30 per cent of Azraq residents are from Daraa, 20 per cent from Aleppo and 15 per cent from Homs. 

The oldest refugee in the camp is 97 years old, the UNHCR official added.

“As #Pope departs Jordan on its Independence Day, another 300 + @refugees from #Syria arrive, [including] a 7-day-old boy,” he wrote in another tweet on Sunday.

The Azraq Refugee Camp, located some 100km east of Amman near the eponymous town in Zarqa Governorate, will eventually be able to accommodate up to 130,000 people, sprawling over 15 square kilometres.

The Kingdom has given sanctuary to some 600,000 of the 2.5 million Syrians who have fled their country since the onset of the conflict in March 2011, UN figures show, but unofficial figures suggest they could amount to one million.