Kingdom of Refugees

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:00:00. > :00:08.wonderful catch from England's Chris Jordan helped restrict the hosts to

:00:09. > :00:14.262 for seven. Jordan held on to big shot to have AB de Villiers out for

:00:15. > :00:17.73. Now on BBC News Lyse Doucet talks

:00:18. > :00:20.to King Abdullah of Jordan When you fly across Jordan you see

:00:21. > :00:24.the stark reality of a little country bordering all the big

:00:25. > :00:26.problems in the Middle East - wars in Iraq and Syria,

:00:27. > :00:28.the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. From Syria alone, it

:00:29. > :00:30.has taken in nearly 1.5 million refugees -

:00:31. > :00:39.more than all of Europe last year. How long were you here,

:00:40. > :00:45.waiting at the border? I have come to Jordan

:00:46. > :00:47.to speak with King Five years into Syria's punishing

:00:48. > :01:00.war, he says his country In the psyche of the Jordanian

:01:01. > :01:03.people, I think, it has Sooner or later, I think

:01:04. > :01:08.the dam is going to burst. Every day in Jordan more

:01:09. > :01:31.Syrian refugees are born. Every year for the past few years,

:01:32. > :01:34.10,000 Syrian babies. Now one in five people

:01:35. > :01:36.in Jordan are from When I started in June 2015,

:01:37. > :01:51.the number of babies was less than this

:01:52. > :01:53.number, and now we are increasing I remember before, 56 years ago,

:01:54. > :02:16.it was less crowded than now, But they are welcome -

:02:17. > :02:25.they are our neighbours. the same, and now Syrians

:02:26. > :02:43.who arrive, thinking it is just Years of children born away

:02:44. > :02:51.from their homeland, TRANSLATION: As long

:02:52. > :03:15.as it is unstable in Syria, These kids, born here,

:03:16. > :03:36.they have got a good start, Will their parents bring

:03:37. > :03:47.them up in Jordan? It is not their own country

:03:48. > :04:03.and they don't have the same rights. Will another country

:04:04. > :04:07.give them refuge? Will there ever be a place

:04:08. > :04:10.where they truly feel at home? Amman, the capital,

:04:11. > :04:14.is small and crowded. Syrians are now living

:04:15. > :04:24.next door to Jordanians, For so much less of a place

:04:25. > :04:36.than they had before. They have moved house ten

:04:37. > :04:47.times since they fled They fled to keep

:04:48. > :05:06.their children safe. But the children

:05:07. > :05:10.still don't feel secure. So do you want to stay

:05:11. > :05:57.here in Jordan, or do This family's story

:05:58. > :06:28.is a very Syrian story. Children look to the future

:06:29. > :06:33.and see it in Europe. Parents want to stay close

:06:34. > :06:37.to Syria and their past, but life now in Jordan

:06:38. > :06:41.becomes ever harder, As Syria's war drags on,

:06:42. > :06:56.pressure mounts on Jordan's King Jordanians are now asking

:06:57. > :07:02.what life will be like for I have interviewed

:07:03. > :07:13.King Abdullah many times during

:07:14. > :07:14.many crises confronting this region. Jordanians, he tells me,

:07:15. > :07:28.have reached their limit. In the psyche of the Jordanian

:07:29. > :07:31.people I think, it has gone It has hurt us when it comes

:07:32. > :07:37.to the educational system, People, Jordanians, just trying

:07:38. > :07:41.to get along with their lives. Sooner or later,

:07:42. > :07:43.I think the dam is going We are asking now for the first time

:07:44. > :07:46.of the international We have always stood shoulder

:07:47. > :07:50.to shoulder by your side. You can't say no this

:07:51. > :07:54.time around to us. But this is the road to Syria's

:07:55. > :08:12.border, in a barren corner This is where the Syrians keep

:08:13. > :08:28.coming, or at least they try. New waves of bombing in Syria

:08:29. > :08:51.by Russian jets are pushing more And they carry whatever

:08:52. > :08:58.goods they can. Most are stuck in this no man's land

:08:59. > :09:13.between Syria and Jordan. It is no place to live,

:09:14. > :09:16.but some have been stranded How long

:09:17. > :09:33.were you here waiting at the border? Only the most vulnerable

:09:34. > :09:37.are being allowed in. Jordan suspects the

:09:38. > :09:39.so-called Islamic State Everyone is checked

:09:40. > :09:46.for traces of explosives. The soldiers keep

:09:47. > :09:48.close watch, as aid agencies care for the

:09:49. > :09:53.refugees stranded here. But Jordan is resisting pressure

:09:54. > :09:57.from the West to let more people in. This is a major national security

:09:58. > :10:01.problem for all of us. If you are going to

:10:02. > :10:04.take the higher moral ground issue, we will get

:10:05. > :10:06.them all to an airbase, and we are more than happy

:10:07. > :10:09.to relocate them to your country. Europe is saying to you,

:10:10. > :10:15.we don't want more refugees. You are saying, we don't

:10:16. > :10:19.want any more refugees. We will continue to bring them

:10:20. > :10:24.across, in limited numbers, we will continue to look

:10:25. > :10:27.after them on the other side, They are the people

:10:28. > :10:31.nobody seems to want. Jordan says it's full,

:10:32. > :10:33.Europe is putting up Their country, the war,

:10:34. > :10:38.just five miles from here, and until it stops

:10:39. > :10:40.they are not going to In the last five years,

:10:41. > :10:46.more than half of the Syrians Even for those who finally entered

:10:47. > :11:00.Jordan, there is no end What is certain -

:11:01. > :11:07.there are more and more Across an unstable region,

:11:08. > :11:24.extremists exploit porous borders. Jordan's soldiers

:11:25. > :11:29.try to seal theirs. There is no one on guard

:11:30. > :11:32.on the Syrian side now, but it is in sight

:11:33. > :11:36.of Jordan's military. They are on the lookout

:11:37. > :11:41.for IS and Al-Qaeda, All the border crossings

:11:42. > :11:48.have been shut since last year, and yet

:11:49. > :11:50.some fighters still slip We have picked up a lot of people

:11:51. > :11:58.that have crossed over the border over the past four or five years

:11:59. > :12:01.that are linked to Isis and other organisations, so it is an ongoing

:12:02. > :12:05.problem as you have faced in Europe That is the reality

:12:06. > :12:08.of the world we are living in. To have pressure by

:12:09. > :12:11.certain groups of just looking the other way and letting

:12:12. > :12:14.refugees in just because they say we have to and then

:12:15. > :12:16.open our society up to potential terrorist strike -

:12:17. > :12:19.somewhere along the line we have If anything shows the reality

:12:20. > :12:38.of Jordan's refugee Less than four years ago,

:12:39. > :12:44.this was just sand, but it's not Packed with Syrian refugees,

:12:45. > :12:51.but this is less than 10% of the Syrian population

:12:52. > :12:55.in Jordan - 10%. The vast majority are living

:12:56. > :13:22.in the towns and cities, crisis, but it has

:13:23. > :14:21.made things worse. TRANSLATION:

:14:22. > :15:35.isn't a Syrian refugee. And these kids are the

:15:36. > :15:45.face of that poverty. The big concern for Jordan

:15:46. > :15:47.is that you have Wadiha, who is selling magazines

:15:48. > :15:50.on the street, at age nine - where will he be a decade

:15:51. > :15:56.later, if he is jobless? I think what keeps me

:15:57. > :15:58.up at night, and I have said this on so many occasions,

:15:59. > :16:01.is not the political situation, it's not the military security,

:16:02. > :16:04.because we are all strong and united, we know

:16:05. > :16:06.where the emeny is. But young Jordanians looking

:16:07. > :16:08.for jobs are so frustrated that if we can't give them

:16:09. > :16:23.an opportunity, that's the problem. Nearly half of young people

:16:24. > :16:27.here are unemployed. Cities like Irbid so close

:16:28. > :16:30.to the border is where many It started with one old man saying,

:16:31. > :17:27.my family is suffering, my three sons are unemployed,

:17:28. > :17:30.because too many Syrians are trying to get work - they're

:17:31. > :17:34.taking our work. And look at the crowd -

:17:35. > :17:38.construction workers, a man working in sweets, a barber,

:17:39. > :17:43.a man who's unemployed - everyone has a story about a hard

:17:44. > :17:45.life, and every story Syrians find work wherever they can,

:17:46. > :17:57.but Jordan is now under pressure from the West to allow more

:17:58. > :17:59.Syrians to get jobs here, so they feel they have

:18:00. > :18:02.a reason to stay and In exchange, this country gets

:18:03. > :18:08.more aid - to create The person who loses

:18:09. > :18:14.at the end of the day is the young Jordanian man

:18:15. > :18:17.and woman looking for a job. The international

:18:18. > :18:20.community is saying, they will do more, but they say

:18:21. > :18:22.Jordan has to do more. Look at the plight

:18:23. > :18:24.of the Syrian refugees here - only 1% have been

:18:25. > :18:27.given work permits. If you are going to create a job

:18:28. > :18:31.for a Syrian, you are going to have You can't just do it for Syrians,

:18:32. > :18:39.and ignore the Jordanians. For the past several years

:18:40. > :18:42.many of the Western countries used to say, we are so grateful

:18:43. > :18:45.to the role that Jordan has taken, take refugees into your country

:18:46. > :18:51.in the way you have been able to do, and if we keep saying to ourselves,

:18:52. > :18:55.if we were in your position, could we do what you

:18:56. > :19:00.have been able to do? Those words were all wonderful,

:19:01. > :19:05.but it wasn't until a trickle hit European shores that then I think

:19:06. > :19:07.eyebrows were raised and they began to realise the reality

:19:08. > :19:09.of the challenges that The hardest reality is a war that

:19:10. > :19:23.seems to have no end. A quarter of a million

:19:24. > :19:39.lives lost so far. Every month, tens

:19:40. > :19:46.of thousands injured. Some of them make it to Jordan,

:19:47. > :19:56.including 12-year-old Dahan. Seven months ago, doctors feared

:19:57. > :20:30.he wouldn't walk again. But even in the darkest

:20:31. > :20:32.of wars, there This hospital, run

:20:33. > :20:41.by the charity Doctors Without Borders treats people

:20:42. > :20:44.escaping wars from across the Middle It opened a decade

:20:45. > :20:52.ago to treat Iraqis. It is still treating them -

:20:53. > :20:58.and Yemenis, and Gazans, and now Syrians too,

:20:59. > :21:01.all fleeing from wars without end, We have received almost 4000

:21:02. > :21:08.patients since 2006. Nobody wants these massacres

:21:09. > :21:17.to continue and to take the lives of innocent people -

:21:18. > :21:20.innocent people from Syria, innocent people from

:21:21. > :21:21.Iraq, innocent people As Syria's war approaches its sixth

:21:22. > :21:42.year, there is so little light. For decades Jordanians have taken

:21:43. > :21:48.in people from the wars all around

:21:49. > :21:51.them. This time, they are peering

:21:52. > :21:53.into the darkness and asking The problem is the Jordanian people

:21:54. > :21:57.have to feel that 2016 is the beginning of

:21:58. > :21:58.taking that corner, that life is going to start

:21:59. > :22:01.to improve, otherwise For me to be able to look

:22:02. > :22:05.into the eyes of my people, and to say, you know,

:22:06. > :22:07.tomorrow is going to be a better day -

:22:08. > :22:17.that is where we are at today. That's what families

:22:18. > :22:25.like the Al-Rahils hope for too, but many fear this war

:22:26. > :22:28.will last a generation. Upsetting the very way life

:22:29. > :22:31.is lived, defining the future of children - most of all,

:22:32. > :22:33.Syrian children, growing up in places where they won't ever

:22:34. > :22:44.be completely at home.