Over 85 percent of Syrians lived outside refugee camps in rented accommodation.Īccording to the UNHCR, Jordan also hosted asylum seekers and refugees from other countries in 2021, including 66,665 Iraqis, 12,866 Yemenis, 6,013 Sudanese, 696 Somalis, and 1,453 from other countries. Refugees and Migrantsīy late 2021, over 670,000 people from Syria had sought refuge in Jordan, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Jordanian authorities in 2021 continued a crackdown on the independent Teachers Syndicate, keeping it shuttered on dubious legal grounds, and on December 31, 2020, a Jordanian court sentenced the syndicate leaders to one year in prison on vague charges after an unfair trial. In August, Jordanian security authorities blocked a public book launch hosted in part by the Ministry of Culture. Under the Public Gatherings Law amended in March 2011, Jordan did not require government permission to hold public meetings or demonstrations, but organizations and venues continued to be required to obtain permission from the Interior Ministry or General Intelligence Department to host events. In 2021 Jordan’s Ministry of Social Development convened a committee to draft amendments to Jordan’s Law on Associations (NGO law) but as of October 2021 the committee, which included representatives of local and international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), had yet to issue the draft amendments. Jordanian press outlets did not report on revelations about the king’s real estate holdings in the United States and United Kingdom as part of the Pandora Papers reporting in October. Jordanian authorities further curtailed press freedom in 2021 by issuing arbitrary press gag orders prohibiting reporting on important local developments, including local reporting on the ongoing crackdown on the independent Teachers’ Syndicate and the April arrests of individuals connected to Prince Hamza accused of undertaking a plot to undermine the country’s leadership. Jordanian law criminalizes speech deemed critical of the king, foreign countries, government officials and institutions, Islam and Christianity, and defamatory speech. On July 12, Jordan’s State Security Court convicted a former high-level official and a little-known royal family member of “sowing discord” and “inciting opposition to the political regime,” sentencing both of them to 15 years in prison for allegedly undertaking a plot to “mobilize public opinion against the ruling regime in the kingdom and propose Prince Hamza as an alternative to take rule.” Freedom of Expression In October, the committee, chaired by former Prime Minister Samir Rifai, issued recommendations for amending laws on political parties and elections, but it was unclear whether the recommendations would improve access to political participation across Jordanian society. In June, King Abdullah II convened a 92-member committee to make recommendations for reforming and modernizing Jordan’s political system. In 2021, Jordanian authorities did not rescind a state of emergency declared in March 2020 in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, granting the prime minister sweeping powers to rule by decree.
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