Kingdom of Refugees

wonderful catch from England's Chris Jordan helped restrict the hosts to

262 for seven. Jordan held on to big shot to have AB de Villiers out for

73. Now on BBC News Lyse Doucet talks

to King Abdullah of Jordan When you fly across Jordan you see

the stark reality of a little country bordering all the big

problems in the Middle East - wars in Iraq and Syria,

the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. From Syria alone, it

has taken in nearly 1.5 million refugees -

more than all of Europe last year. How long were you here,

waiting at the border? I have come to Jordan

to speak with King Five years into Syria's punishing

war, he says his country In the psyche of the Jordanian

people, I think, it has Sooner or later, I think

the dam is going to burst. Every day in Jordan more

Syrian refugees are born. Every year for the past few years,

10,000 Syrian babies. Now one in five people

in Jordan are from When I started in June 2015,

the number of babies was less than this

number, and now we are increasing I remember before, 56 years ago,

it was less crowded than now, But they are welcome -

they are our neighbours. the same, and now Syrians

who arrive, thinking it is just Years of children born away

from their homeland, TRANSLATION: As long

as it is unstable in Syria, These kids, born here,

they have got a good start, Will their parents bring

them up in Jordan? It is not their own country

and they don't have the same rights. Will another country

give them refuge? Will there ever be a place

where they truly feel at home? Amman, the capital,

is small and crowded. Syrians are now living

next door to Jordanians, For so much less of a place

than they had before. They have moved house ten

times since they fled They fled to keep

their children safe. But the children

still don't feel secure. So do you want to stay

here in Jordan, or do This family's story

is a very Syrian story. Children look to the future

and see it in Europe. Parents want to stay close

to Syria and their past, but life now in Jordan

becomes ever harder, As Syria's war drags on,

pressure mounts on Jordan's King Jordanians are now asking

what life will be like for I have interviewed

King Abdullah many times during

many crises confronting this region. Jordanians, he tells me,

have reached their limit. In the psyche of the Jordanian

people I think, it has gone It has hurt us when it comes

to the educational system, People, Jordanians, just trying

to get along with their lives. Sooner or later,

I think the dam is going We are asking now for the first time

of the international We have always stood shoulder

to shoulder by your side. You can't say no this

time around to us. But this is the road to Syria's

border, in a barren corner This is where the Syrians keep

coming, or at least they try. New waves of bombing in Syria

by Russian jets are pushing more And they carry whatever

goods they can. Most are stuck in this no man's land

between Syria and Jordan. It is no place to live,

but some have been stranded How long

were you here waiting at the border? Only the most vulnerable

are being allowed in. Jordan suspects the

so-called Islamic State Everyone is checked

for traces of explosives. The soldiers keep

close watch, as aid agencies care for the

refugees stranded here. But Jordan is resisting pressure

from the West to let more people in. This is a major national security

problem for all of us. If you are going to

take the higher moral ground issue, we will get

them all to an airbase, and we are more than happy

to relocate them to your country. Europe is saying to you,

we don't want more refugees. You are saying, we don't

want any more refugees. We will continue to bring them

across, in limited numbers, we will continue to look

after them on the other side, They are the people

nobody seems to want. Jordan says it's full,

Europe is putting up Their country, the war,

just five miles from here, and until it stops

they are not going to In the last five years,

more than half of the Syrians Even for those who finally entered

Jordan, there is no end What is certain -

there are more and more Across an unstable region,

extremists exploit porous borders. Jordan's soldiers

try to seal theirs. There is no one on guard

on the Syrian side now, but it is in sight

of Jordan's military. They are on the lookout

for IS and Al-Qaeda, All the border crossings

have been shut since last year, and yet

some fighters still slip We have picked up a lot of people

that have crossed over the border over the past four or five years

that are linked to Isis and other organisations, so it is an ongoing

problem as you have faced in Europe That is the reality

of the world we are living in. To have pressure by

certain groups of just looking the other way and letting

refugees in just because they say we have to and then

open our society up to potential terrorist strike -

somewhere along the line we have If anything shows the reality

of Jordan's refugee Less than four years ago,

this was just sand, but it's not Packed with Syrian refugees,

but this is less than 10% of the Syrian population

in Jordan - 10%. The vast majority are living

in the towns and cities, crisis, but it has

made things worse. TRANSLATION:

isn't a Syrian refugee. And these kids are the

face of that poverty. The big concern for Jordan

is that you have Wadiha, who is selling magazines

on the street, at age nine - where will he be a decade

later, if he is jobless? I think what keeps me

up at night, and I have said this on so many occasions,

is not the political situation, it's not the military security,

because we are all strong and united, we know

where the emeny is. But young Jordanians looking

for jobs are so frustrated that if we can't give them

an opportunity, that's the problem. Nearly half of young people

here are unemployed. Cities like Irbid so close

to the border is where many It started with one old man saying,

my family is suffering, my three sons are unemployed,

because too many Syrians are trying to get work - they're

taking our work. And look at the crowd -

construction workers, a man working in sweets, a barber,

a man who's unemployed - everyone has a story about a hard

life, and every story Syrians find work wherever they can,

but Jordan is now under pressure from the West to allow more

Syrians to get jobs here, so they feel they have

a reason to stay and In exchange, this country gets

more aid - to create The person who loses

at the end of the day is the young Jordanian man

and woman looking for a job. The international

community is saying, they will do more, but they say

Jordan has to do more. Look at the plight

of the Syrian refugees here - only 1% have been

given work permits. If you are going to create a job

for a Syrian, you are going to have You can't just do it for Syrians,

and ignore the Jordanians. For the past several years

many of the Western countries used to say, we are so grateful

to the role that Jordan has taken, take refugees into your country

in the way you have been able to do, and if we keep saying to ourselves,

if we were in your position, could we do what you

have been able to do? Those words were all wonderful,

but it wasn't until a trickle hit European shores that then I think

eyebrows were raised and they began to realise the reality

of the challenges that The hardest reality is a war that

seems to have no end. A quarter of a million

lives lost so far. Every month, tens

of thousands injured. Some of them make it to Jordan,

including 12-year-old Dahan. Seven months ago, doctors feared

he wouldn't walk again. But even in the darkest

of wars, there This hospital, run

by the charity Doctors Without Borders treats people

escaping wars from across the Middle It opened a decade

ago to treat Iraqis. It is still treating them -

and Yemenis, and Gazans, and now Syrians too,

all fleeing from wars without end, We have received almost 4000

patients since 2006. Nobody wants these massacres

to continue and to take the lives of innocent people -

innocent people from Syria, innocent people from

Iraq, innocent people As Syria's war approaches its sixth

year, there is so little light. For decades Jordanians have taken

in people from the wars all around

them. This time, they are peering

into the darkness and asking The problem is the Jordanian people

have to feel that 2016 is the beginning of

taking that corner, that life is going to start

to improve, otherwise For me to be able to look

into the eyes of my people, and to say, you know,

tomorrow is going to be a better day -

that is where we are at today. That's what families

like the Al-Rahils hope for too, but many fear this war

will last a generation. Upsetting the very way life

is lived, defining the future of children - most of all,

Syrian children, growing up in places where they won't ever

be completely at home.