Jordan test ground for huge jobs program for 200,000 Syria refugees

PanARMENIAN.Net - A new trade deal with Europe, a rush of foreign investment and public works are to put 200,000 Syrian refugees to work in Jordan in what the international community has described as a radical new approach to tackling the biggest displacement crisis in decades, the Associated Press reports.

Still, senior officials acknowledged that it may take several years to reach that target.

Such a slow pace could keep many Syrians in limbo and possibly undercut one of the main aims of the global intervention — to quickly reduce refugee migration from struggling regional host nations to Europe.

Shifting from handouts to helping refugees sustain themselves is now seen as the most effective way to deal with the fallout from a prolonged conflict that has defied a negotiated solution. The Syria war enters its sixth year later this month, AP says.

The new deal, described by Jordanian Planning Minister Imad Fakhoury as "transformative," was struck at last month's annual Syria aid conference in London.

Jordan is the main testing ground for job creation.

Under the new pact, Jordan promises to allow up to 200,000 Syrian refugees to work legally, an idea it rejected in the past because of high domestic unemployment.

In exchange, Jordanian products would win easier access to European markets, meant to create new investment and jobs. Jordan would also receive hundreds of millions of dollars in grants and cheap loans for development projects.

If successful, the scheme would probably mean replacing some of Jordan's hundreds of thousands of foreign workers, mostly from Egypt or Asia, with Syrians.