Hanna Davis

Ruk­ban, which lies near the Syr­i­an bor­der with Jor­dan and Iraq, has been block­ad­ed by the Syr­i­an gov­ern­ment since 2018.

Of­fi­cial me­dia re­main silent for al­most two weeks since Hamzah’s an­nounce­ment, as Jor­da­ni­ans com­plain of cor­rup­tion.

Opened in 2014, the re­mote refugee camp was built in re­sponse to over­crowd­ing at Za­atari, Jor­dan’s largest fa­cil­i­ty.

Recog­ni­tion of ‘Jor­dan­ian women’ in the con­sti­tu­tion ig­nit­ed a brawl in par­lia­ment and de­bate over their sta­tus.

A re­cent spate of con­sti­tu­tion­al amend­ments will give even more pow­er to Jor­dan’s King Ab­dul­lah II.

De­scen­dants of Pales­tin­ian refugees from Gaza live in Jor­dan with­out cit­i­zen­ship or rights, re­ly­ing on UN agency.

Crit­ics say the deal leaves Jor­dan de­pen­dent on Is­rael with­out pro­vid­ing a so­lu­tion to the coun­try’s wa­ter prob­lems.

‘De­te­ri­o­rat­ing’ eco­nom­ic con­di­tions have forced thou­sands more chil­dren into haz­ardous work.