Jordan ‘forcibly evicts’ 100 Palestinians from unofficial refugee camp to make way for construction project

Authorities in Jordan have reportedly “forcibly evicted” around a hundred Palestinians from an unofficial refugee camp to make way for a new construction project.

According to Human Rights Watch (HRW) this week, the Jordanian capital’s Greater Amman Municipality (GAM) demolished 25 homes, along with shops, in the city’s Al-Mahatta camp in November and December last year. That demolition reportedly forced at least 101 people to be evicted.

Although Al-Mahatta camp is not officially recognised as a refugee camp by the Jordanian government, it houses approximately 8,000 Palestinians whose families were displaced by Israeli occupation forces during the 1948 Nakba.

The evictions and demolitions were reportedly carried out in order to clear the way for a new town planning project being worked on by Amman’s authorities, with the municipality having announced in December its four-year “Strategic Plan” for the city until 2026, which is said to include the increasing of green space, improvements to the traffic system, and reducing population density within unrecognised neighbourhoods and settlements.

According to the HRW report, the evicted people were not adequately consulted, nor were they given much notice, compensation, or assistance to relocate. They were cited as saying that they were given only “two weeks to a month’s notice” to leave their homes and “vague verbal promises of compensation of 80 Jordanian dinars ($113) per square metre, with limited transparency regarding the process or timeline.”

Amman Mayor Yousef Al-Shawarbeh was quoted as saying, however, that the displaced Palestinian residents were not entitled to compensation as they were “encroaching on state property”, and that the city had instead offered them a “donation”.

Adam Coogle, HRW’s deputy Middle East director, stated that “Displacing families and disrupting their livelihoods without adequate safeguards and fair compensation leaves dozens of people with few places to seek help.”