US embassy cable - 03AMMAN2130

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 AMMAN 002130 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
DEPT FOR NEA AND PRM, KUWAIT AND NICOSIA FOR DART 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREF, PREL, EAID, KPAL, IZ, JO 
SUBJECT: RUWEISHED RELIEF EFFORTS FLAPPING IN THE WIND 
 
 
1.  (SBU) Summary and comment:  On April 5, refcoord and 
DART-West monitored operations at the IOM/JRCS TCN transit 
and UNHCR refugee camps in Ruweished.  Rather than serving as 
a brief stopping point on the way home, the IOM/JRCS transit 
camp is struggling to care for an unexpected population of 
Somalis and Sudanese who do not want to return home, 
stateless Palestinians who have no place to go, as well as 
smaller numbers of other nationalities which are logistically 
difficult to repatriate.  Camp management problems, including 
in key water and sanitation sectors, should remain manageable 
as long as the camp population remains small.  The 
still-empty UNHCR refugee camp is well organized and able to 
accommodate an immediate influx of up to 5,000 refugees.  End 
summary and comment. 
 
Transit Camp Turned Temporary Refuge 
------------------------------------ 
 
2.  (U) IOM's expected deluge of tens of thousands of 
Egyptian laborers, who would be bused to Aqaba and then 
ferried to Egypt, has not materialized.  Rather than serving 
as intermediate rest stop for Egyptians, the Jordan Red 
Crescent Society's TCN transit camp at Ruweished has 
therefore emerged as a long-term home for roughly 100 
Sudanese and Somali nationals who are unwilling to return 
home, 40 undocumented Palestinians and a smaller number of 
other nationalities that are proving to be logistically 
difficult to repatriate.  The typical stay at the TCN transit 
camp has dragged out from the anticipated 24-48 hours to one 
or two weeks -- or even longer, for those who do not want to 
return home and are hoping to return to Iraq once conditions 
improve.  The Palestinians, most of whom are long-term 
residents of Iraq, likely will remain at the camp until they 
are able to return to Iraq although King Abdullah on April 7 
allowed 13 Palestinians with direct family ties to Jordanian 
citizens to enter Amman on a temporary basis (septel). 
 
Jordan Red Crescent Struggling to Cope 
-------------------------------------- 
 
3.  (SBU) The Jordan Red Crescent Society (JRCS), formally 
tasked by the GOJ to run the transit camp, has struggled with 
basic camp management issues.  Although JRCS lacked key 
resources such as generators or food stocks, it told IOM it 
did not need any financial or technical assistance to run the 
camp.  IOM has therefore provided financial support only for 
80 JRCS volunteers who are serving as medical staff and 
escorts.  (JRCS currently seeks USD 2.5 million in assistance 
from IFRC to cover camp management costs, a sum IFRC termed 
"excessive.")  Even after the crisis began and key management 
gaps emerged, JRCS refused to seek outside help and failed 
even to systematically identify needs.  IOM and IFRC 
officials have tried to offer technical expertise, but report 
that JRCS leadership has resisted their suggestions.  After 
two weeks of tense negotiations, JRCS President Mohamad 
Al-Hadid finally held a coordination meeting with the NGO 
community on March 31, where JRCS, IOM and NGOs together 
identified gaps and possible solutions. 
 
4.  (U) According to logistics specialists from UNHCR and 
IFRC, the JRCS camp was poorly engineered in just about every 
sense.  JRCS volunteers erected family tents and rubb halls 
improperly, leaving them literally flapping in the sandstorms 
that have buffeted Ruweished for the last few weeks.  JRCS 
failed to provide food or electricity in the early days of 
the crisis, leaving IOM to hire a caterer and purchase a 
generator for the camp.  JRCS also failed to create proper 
warehousing and inventory systems and only established 
separate warehousing for food and non-food items after UNHCR 
implementing partner CARE offered to set up a rubb hall for 
JRCS.  More significantly, latrines and showers were 
constructed in long rows, with inadequate piping, leaving the 
system unable to be properly flushed.  IOM health officials 
report that there also are inadequate hand-washing facilities 
near the latrines and no plans for personal hygiene training 
in the camp.  JRCS medical services -- including a 
well-equipped six-bed clinic -- fortunately appear to be 
adequate. 
 
5.  (U) Water for the camp is provided by the GOJ's Ministry 
of Water.  JRCS trucks the water from the nearby municipality 
of Ruweished and then stores it in three 20,000-liter tanks 
throughout the camp.  Although the GOJ's Ministry of Health 
has determined that the stored water is potable, camp 
residents complain that the water is brown and full of 
particles and now refuse to drink it.  IFRC experts later 
told refcoord the tanks most likely were not flushed prior to 
installation.  JRCS is now bringing in a separate water 
tanker from Ruweished once a day and distributing drinking 
water directly from the tanker into collapsible jerry cans. 
As one JRCS employee admitted, this distribution system is 
"chaotic." 
 
6.  (SBU) IOM and JRCS' NGO implementing partners also 
complain that JRCS volunteers do not understand fundamental 
principles of camp management.  In the early days of the 
crisis, JRCS officials allowed visitors to roam the camp 
freely, including journalists who interviewed camp residents 
and even broadcast from inside tents.  JRCS later tightened 
security so much that it refused to allow some IOM staff 
access to the camp, impeding IOM's efforts to identify TCNs 
for repatriation.  IOM reports that these access issues have 
now been resolved.  Also in the early days of the crisis, 
JRCS volunteers showed up at the camp in overwhelming numbers 
(400 to the camp's then-150 residents), lounging in tents, 
chatting on cell phones and jostling the TCNs out of the way 
at mealtimes.  IOM has subsequently convinced JRCS to reduce 
the volunteer presence at the camp. 
 
UNHCR Refugee Camp:  Ready but Empty 
------------------------------------ 
 
7.  (U) UNHCR's still-empty refugee camp is well organized 
and ready to accommodate an immediate influx of up to 5,000 
refugees.  After an initial, enthusiastic wave of tent 
construction by the Hashemite Charitable Organization (HCO) 
and subsequent, destructive sandstorms, roughly 400 family 
tents remain standing in the refugee camp.  UNHCR 
implementing partner CARE/Australia, charged with overall 
camp management, has worked closely with GOJ authorities and 
other NGO implementing partners to set up lighting and roads. 
 Japan Platform has provided a well-equipped clinic and three 
medical staff remain on 24-hour call.  Oxfam engineered a 
gravity-fed water distribution system that supplies water 
from a nearby GOJ well to tap stands throughout the camp. 
(Water for the camp is treated by the USAID/OFDA-funded 
reverse osmosis unit.)  At the insistence of the HCO, Oxfam 
also installed flush toilets in part of the camp to respond 
to cultural sensitivities.  A well-stocked UNHCR warehouse in 
nearby Ruweished holds non-food items for 10,000 people. 
UNHCR told refcoord April 7 that it intends to keep the camp 
operational through at least May 15. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
8.  (SBU) Muddled though the JRCS' relief efforts may be, it 
appears that the transit camp management problems -- 
including in the key water and sanitation sectors -- will 
remain manageable as long as the camp population remains 
small.  And should Jordan suddenly experience a large influx 
of TCNs, IOM has the ability to quickly move TCNs to either 
Queen Alia Airport or Aqaba for immediate repatriation.  We 
therefore do not foresee any significant humanitarian 
problems arising in Ruweished. 
GNEHM