AMMAN, Nov. 1 (Xinhua) -- Located 27 km north of the capital Amman, the
Baqaa refugee camp braces the same hustle and bustle as any other Jordanian
towns, with Arab pop music blaring from video shops and noisy residents fighting
their way through a crowded open-air market.
Four decades on, the Baqaa camp became a permanent residential area for two
waves of Palestinians who fled to Jordan as consequences of the 1948 and 1967
Arab-Israeli wars respectively.
But nobody there accepts the notion that Baqaa, the largest Palestinian
refugee camp in Jordan and the Middle East, might become their permanent home.
The Baqaa camp encompasses an area of1.4 square km, with a total population of
nearly 120,000.
TEMPORARY RESIDENCE
Mohamed Gandir, 41, moved into the camp in 1967 when he was a baby in his
mother's arms. Forty years later, he becomes a grandfather of three.
Standing in front of his CD shop in downtown Baqaa, Mohamed Gandir said his
family was forced to flee the home near Bethlehem in 1948 to a refugee camp in
the West Bank and flee again from what was left of historical Palestine to seek
shelter in Baqaa in 1967.
Gandir's business was just so-so like what he said, for no customer was
seen during a 15-minute interview with Xinhua. He said he was disappointed at
the political situation of the long-standing Palestinian-Israeli conflict. "But
I have no way to deal with it, just leave it as it is," he said.
Asked whether he would return to his homeland, Gandir immediately nodded
his head. "I am a Palestinian. There is a natural connection between me and my
country, even though I have no idea of what it is like," he said.
A 25-year-old girl named Hipa, who was born inside the Baqaa camp, also
brands herself a Palestinian. Her parents "dream about their homes," she said,
adding that they believed their stay in Jordan was only temporary.
A stationery shop owner who refused to be identified said "I pray every day
that I will return to Jerusalem. I have a big house there, my home is there."
Dressed in a black head-to-toe robe with embroidery on the cuffs, Mariam
Jaudat said her family with six children has to rely on her husband for a
living. Even though her children can enjoy free education in the camp schools,
they still cannot make end meet, she said.
Jaudat, who was not satisfied with the miserable life inside the camp,
believed in a better life in the future Palestinian state. "We have lands there
and here is not our home," said the 37-year-old housewife.
HARDSHIP IN JORDAN
Salih Ali was ambling down a road with trash, such as plastic bags,
cigarette boxes and beverage bottles scattering here and there. Wearing a red
and white latticed scarf, the 60-year-old man said he dreamed of his homeland
every day.
Lounging around the dusty roads all the day was the life for him without a
job, he said, adding that he had to count on his children who work outside the
Baqaa camp.
Unemployment rate among refugees in Jordan was higher than the rate
nationwide, said a study released by the Amman-based Palestinian Center for
Citizenship Rights in 2006.
There are 13 Palestinian refugee camps scattered around Jordan housing some
1.6 million people, according to the United Nations' agency for Palestine
refugees (UNRWA). The UNRWA provides some basic services for registered
Palestinian refugees, including basic education, health care, relief and social
services.
Statistics, meanwhile, showed that more than 60 percent of refugees live on
150 U.S. dollars a month or less in Jordan featuring high cost of living and
scarce resources, putting them below the poverty line.
In Baqaa alone, the UNRWA funded 16 schools and two health centers.
"We need more funds and there is shortage of medical staffs for the health
centers in camps," said Dr. Ghazi Al-Kouz, area health officer of Amman for the
UNRWA, who was inspecting the bigger health center of the two in Baqaa.
There were only four doctors, three laboratory analysts and 18 nurses here,
said Al-Kouz, adding that one doctor had to see over 100 patients daily. "Look
at the patients there," he said, pointing at scores of people waiting for
doctors in the hall.
As a Palestinian himself, he also longed for return. Even though he has
bought houses, started families and worked for decades in Jordan, he is still
unable to lay down permanent roots in the host country.
But he thought that return would be a remote thing, saying that nothing
positive would come out of a U.S.-proposed international peace conference on the
Middle East next month, let alone the most thorny issue of the Palestinian
refugees in the stalled Middle East peace process.
Inside the health center, Ashraf, seated and pressing his stomach, was
looking at the long queue before him. "If I had money, I wouldn't come here to
see doctors, because I know they don't examine us properly," said Ashraf.
