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Gallery|Human Rights

A challenging harvest for Syrian refugees in Jordan

Many Syrian Bedouins who fled violence in their home country are working for under-the-table wages on Jordanian farms.

Syrian beduin refugees/ DO NOT USE/ RESTRICTED
A tent dots the horizon in the northern Jordanian province of Mafraq near the Syrian border. According to UNHCR, about 340 informal settlements house 16,000 Syrian refugees across the country. [Alisa Reznick/Al Jazeera]
By Alisa Reznick
Published On 20 Jul 201520 Jul 2015
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Mafraq, Jordan – A few paces from the Syrian border in northern Jordan, a dirt track leads to a rocky hilltop covered with sand-hued tents overlooking plots of farmland. As the Syrian conflict grinds on, even nomadic groups like the local Bedouin have been fleeing the violence.

“One of the clear indications of how bad Syria was getting was when we saw Bedouins crossing over into Jordan,” Andrew Harper of UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency, told Al Jazeera. “These are people who are very tied to their land and their tribal areas, and often have nothing to do with politics – so seeing them come across as refugees was a clear sign.”

UNHCR first recorded an increase in Bedouin refugees near the end of 2013. Around 630,000 Syrians are registered with the agency in Jordan, of which an estimated 16,000 are living in informal settlements like these.

Shunning the kingdom’s refugee camps to live in tent settlements was an intentional choice for the Bedouin refugees, many of whom worked as farmers in agriculture-based centres in Syria. Some hoped to do the same in Jordan, but Syrians are not allowed to work without a permit or to live outside the country’s refugee camps without permission. Many instead work for under-the-table wages on farms around the country, while the threat of possible government eviction hangs heavy.

As a result, all Syrians portrayed in these photos asked that their names be withheld.

Syrian beduin refugees/ DO NOT USE/ RESTRICTED
A woman from the countryside of Syria's eastern Hama province stands outside her tent with her two children. Often, Syrian Bedouins belonging to the same tribe split plots of land near the farms where they work. [Alisa Reznick/Al Jazeera]
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A Syrian Bedouin pulls out watermelons from a plot of land in Mafraq during this summer's harvesting season. [Alisa Reznick/Al Jazeera]
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A Syrian Bedouin from the rural countryside of eastern Syria sits in his family's tent near the northern Jordanian border. [Alisa Reznick/Al Jazeera]
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A Bedouin woman from Hama clears brush from a watermelon harvest in preparation for a new cultivation. The lack of work permits in the country leaves refugees vulnerable to exploitation by employers, according to UNHCR. [Alisa Reznick/Al Jazeera]
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Many of the Bedouins who are now working under-the-table were also farmers back in Syria before the conflict forced them out. [Alisa Reznick/Al Jazeera]
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Young Bedouin boys work alongside their relatives. Child labour among Syrians is widespread in Jordan. [Alisa Reznick/Al Jazeera]
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According to a 2014 assessment by UNICEF, minors comprised three-quarters of the populations of Jordan's informal settlements. [Alisa Reznick/Al Jazeera]
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As many refugee children do not have access to schooling in the area, they play around the farms. [Alisa Reznick/Al Jazeera]
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A 15-year-old Syrian girl from rural Hama sits in her family's tent in northern Jordan. More than two dozen school-aged children living in the settlement cannot access education due to overcrowding in local schools. [Alisa Reznick/Al Jazeera]
Syrian beduin refugees/ DO NOT USE/ RESTRICTED
The community leader of the settlement in Mafraq fled his home in rural Hama in 2012. Though he has Jordanian relatives, he said he preferred to forge his own path and seek employment independently. [Alisa Reznick/Al Jazeera]
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A Syrian man shows the product of the most recent harvest from the plot he tends in northern Jordan. Long hours and pay below the minimum wage makes refugees without legal work status an alluring resource for Jordanian farm owners. [Alisa Reznick/Al Jazeera]
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A family's monthly income on the farm might reach 600 Jordanian dinars ($850) for very large families. [Alisa Reznick/Al Jazeera]
Syrian beduin refugees/ DO NOT USE/ RESTRICTED
The threat of possible government eviction hangs heavy for the workers. [Alisa Reznick/Al Jazeera]
Syrian beduin refugees/ DO NOT USE/ RESTRICTED
Syrian men head back to their tents after spending a day working in the fields for as little as 10 Jordanian dinars ($14). [Alisa Reznick/Al Jazeera]


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