Jordan: Jordan: UNHCR Operational Update, December 2019
As of end November, the Winterization assistance has reached 70,974 refugee families, including 53,928 Syrians and 17,046 non-Syrian
In November 32,500 vulnerable refugee families benefited from assistance in form of a social (cash) transfer to cover their most vital and essential needs.
PROTECTION
As part of community outreach, UNHCR runs 37 mobile helpdesks in eight different governorates across the country where refugees can approach UNHCR with any legal or protection issues they may have aside the registration centres in Amman, Irbid and Mafraq or those in Azraq and Zaatari. During the month of November, a total of 1,741 refugee families were assisted or counselled on cash assistance, access to health, legal assistance, regularization of status and resettlement among others. Furthermore, 1,314 refugee families were assisted to renewal their asylum-seeker certificates at the helpdesks. In addition, 27 urgent home visits to vulnerable refugees with limited mobility were carried out to assist them with documents renewal and registration cases.
UNHCR Jordan has one of the largest refugee helplines in the world. In November, the Helpline answered 742,913 calls. A total of 3,600,222 answered calls were received during 2019 and 7,741,075 answered calls since the inception of the Helpline in 2008. Calls mainly regarded the following issues: Basic Needs Assistance, including Cash Assistance, Registration, Resettlement and other issues. The system uses Interactive Voice Response (IVR) technology, where automated information is delivered on key topics, while 14 dedicated staff are available for emergency calls. Out of the calls received this month, up to 900 over-the-phone appointments were made to persons of concern. The average call duration was 01:16.
COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT AND SELF RELIANCE
In Azraq camp a total of 3,669 active work permits are registered out of which 2,473 are male and 1,196 are female. In addition, total of 133 work permits have been renewed during the reporting period. The total number of individuals registered in the Incentive Based Volunteers (IBV) scheme reached 16,854, with 10,223 males and 6,631 females.
In Zaatari camp 13,349 active work permits (79% male, 21% female) are registered; Work permitholders now represent approx. 44% of Zaatari Camp working age population between the age of 18-60.
Also, the number of IBV participants currently is 5,802 individuals; the percentage of women engaged in IBV opportunities increased by further 2% to reach to 39%.UNHCR continues its close collaboration with MoPIC on supporting Home-Based Business (HBB) since the November 2018 GoJ decision to allow Syrian refugees to open HBB. The basic training on HBBs was concluded in five governorates to benefit partners, individual researchers and consultants. In November, under the Quick Impact Projects (QIPs), funded by UNHCR, nine out of the planned 39 Syrian Home-Based Businesses (HBBs) have already received registration and licence in coordination with partners BluMont, the Ministry of Industry, Ministry of Local Affairs, municipalities, and other local authorities. Under the same project, the third and fourth local Bazars were held in Mafraq and Karak as scheduled, this was in addition to first two bazaars held in Irbid and Amman.
