The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has reduced the funding allocated to Jordan for the year 2024 amidst warnings of halting or scaling down its operations across the Middle East and North Africa.
According to the “Ammon” news agency, the UNHCR has allocated $374.7 million to Jordan in 2024, compared to $390.1 million last year. This represents a decrease of over $15 million, or 3.93%.
The financial requirements of the UNHCR for the Middle East and North Africa region for this year amount to $2.342 billion to try to meet the needs of approximately 16 million forcibly displaced and stateless people throughout the region.
The agency quoted the UNHCR saying that millions are struggling to meet their daily needs without the support of the international community.
The Middle East and North Africa region witnessed the largest decrease in allocated funding in 2023, with the UNHCR receiving about $214 million less for its programs compared to 2022.
According to the agency, Jordan hosts 55,329 registered Iraqi refugees with the UNHCR and more than 1.3 million Syrians since the start of the Syrian crisis in 2011, including 642,888 registered Syrian refugees with the UNHCR. The UNHCR also states that there are 717,466 registered refugees of all nationalities other than Palestinian refugees, who fall under the mandate of UNRWA, as of February 18 of this year.