Forced Migration in the OIC Member Countries:
Policy Framework Adopted by Host Countries
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Syrians have risen in the last year, only Canada has successfully delivered on resettlement
pledges, and the pace of resettlement to other countries remains slow. As of mid-February
2016, for example, Australia had resettled just 26 of the 12,000 Iraqi and Syrian refugees it
had committed to resettling in September 2015.173
Palestinians and the role of the UN Relief and Works Association (UNRWA)
Palestinians in Jordan are subject to a unique residence and protection regime. Because of the
political circumstances of their displacement, Palestinians are registered with and assisted by
UNRWA rather than UNHCR.174 To prove eligibility to receive status as a Palestine refugee
with UNRWA, an individual must show: passport, birth certificate, marriage certificate,
identity card, employment certificate, utility bill receipts or land registry documents issued in
Palestine before May 15, 1948; documents showing close relatives who are registered with
UNRWA; Red Cross registration cards issued between May 15, 1948 and May 1, 1950; or any
other document endorsed by an official authority in Palestine before May 15, 1948.175
Palestinians are also an exception to Jordan’s general policy prohibiting local integration. A
vast majority of the more than 2 million Palestinian refugees in the country have citizenship or
some form of secure legal status in Jordan. As with other protection policies in Jordan,
however, the specifics of the status and rights accorded to Palestinian refugees depends to a
great extent on when they arrived in the country.
 Palestinians displaced in 1948: The Jordanian Nationality Law grants citizenship
to Palestinians and their descendants who fled to Jordan in 1948.176 Palestinians
with Jordanian citizenship hold a Jordanian national ID number and have the same
rights in practice as any other Jordanian citizen.
 Ex-Gazans: The second wave of Palestinians who arrived in Jordan in 1967,
primarily from Egypt-controlled territory in Gaza, were not included in the
citizenship provisions of the 1954 Jordanian Nationality Law. Ex-Gazans also do not
technically fall under the mandate of UNRWA, which is restricted to those
Palestinians who fled in 1948. Rather, the estimated 150,000 ex-Gazans in Jordan
are classified as Arab foreigners temporarily residing in Jordan, and are granted
some rights on this basis. 177 However, they are not allowed to hold positions in the
public sector or to practice some regulated professions, such as dentistry or law, and
their access to social support and health insurance is more limited.178 In practice,
ex-Gazans and their children are stateless, and as such they are entitled to hold a
temporary Jordanian passport intended for individuals without nationality, usually
valid for two years.179
173 Nicole Hasham,(2016), “Canada has rescued 800 times more Syrian refugees than Australia, figures show,”, The Sydney
Morning Herald, February 17, 2016.
174 Palestinian displacement and the creation of UNRWA to serve Palestinian refugees predated the creation of UNHCR and
the 1951 Refugee Convention. Political debates around the future of the Palestinian territory resulted in Palestinian
refugees being excluded from both when UNHCR and the Convention came into being at a later date.
175 UNRWA, Consolidated Eligibility and Registration Instructions (CERI),(UNRWA, 2009),
p5.
176 Article 3(b), 1954 Nationality Law
177 Oroub El Abed, “Immobile Palestinians: ongoing plight of Gazans in Jordan,” Forced Migration Review, 2006,
178 Tiltnes and Zhang , Progress, challenges, diversity: Insights into the socio-economic conditions of Palestinian refugees in
Jordan
179 Tiltnes and Zhang , Progress, challenges, diversity: Insights into the socio-economic conditions of Palestinian refugees in
Jordan