Hundreds of Syrian refugees suffering from the bad living conditions in Jordan’s Zaatari Camp are starting to go back home, leaving behind the world’s second largest refugee camp.


"Mice walk around on our face while we are sleeping at nights. I would rather live under the bombshells in Syria than live under these conditions here." These are the words of a Syrian refugee, who has been living in unbearable conditions in the second largest refugee camp in the world, Zaatari.

Zaatari, a village located eight kilometers south of the Syrian border of Jordan, is the largest refugee camp for the Syrian refugees. However, the population of the camp, which increased to nearly 200,000 over the summer, has been going down constantly for the last couple of months.

More than 60,000 people have returned to Syria so far, and around 200-300 people keep going back every day, a Jordanian police chief in the camp, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told daily Hürriyet. The camp currently houses around 140,000 Syrians, the police chief said.

More than 800,000 Syrians are believed to have sought sanctuary in Jordan since the civil war broke out in neighboring Syria, while official U.N. figures put the number at more than 550,000. The population of Jordan itself is only 6 million.


The police chief said the Jordanian authorities were doing the best they can. “You are going to hear a lot of different stories here, don’t believe in every story you hear. We are doing our best here to help them, at least everybody receives free meal three times every day. Of course we are not perfect, but Jordan is not a rich country, we have limited resources which don’t enable us to help as much as we want,” he said.