“Since 2019, Jordan has stopped registering refugees,” says Rottenburg’s bishop. There is no state support for these people and Caritas is often the only help. A summary of the trip.
According to Bishop Klaus Krämer of Rottenburg, the refugee crisis in Jordan continues to worsen. “Since 2019, Jordan has stopped registering refugees. This means that these people do not receive any support from state social systems, are not allowed to work and have no access to state healthcare,” Krämer told the Catholic News Agency (KNA) in Amman. Refugee children can only attend school under very difficult conditions.
“This creates a vicious circle of poverty,” emphasised Krämer, who visited Jordan from Wednesday to Monday (1 September). This mainly affects refugees from Iraq and Sudan. “They live far below the poverty line and are urgently dependent on help from non-governmental organisations.”
“Focal point” of refugee movements
After Lebanon, Jordan is the country with the second largest refugee intake worldwide in relation to its population. “We have seen for ourselves that the country is at the end of its tether. That many refugees can no longer be cared for, are ignored by state systems and are dependent on independent organisations such as Caritas.”
Due to the Gaza war and the change of power in Syria, the region is “a focal point in the context of flight and displacement”, said the Bishop of the Catholic diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart and former President of the aid organisations “missio” and “Die Sternsinger”.
Krämer on Merkel’s “We can do it!”
Ten years ago – on 31 August 2015 – former German Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) said her famous phrase “We can do it!” in the face of the refugee crisis in Germany at the time. “It would be nice if we had managed that after ten years!” said Bishop Krämer. “But the world is such that the problem persists and we must therefore do what we can.”
In any case, “the chapter of taking in refugees cannot simply be closed”, emphasised Krämer. The refugee situation in other regions of the world is “many times greater” than in Europe or Germany.
Interview at the “baptismal font of Jesus”
Krämer conducted the telephone interview with KNA in Stuttgart in a pilgrims’ hostel at the “Al-Maghtas” site on the east bank of the Jordan River, which is revered as the baptismal site of Jesus. “You can’t escape the spirit of such a place, it’s a spiritually moving experience – for me as well as for many pilgrims,” said the 61-year-old bishop. “You can sense that the Christian community has a unique foundation in biblical history, which can be experienced here in condensed form.”
