Refugees rationing food to cope with debt — UNHCR report

AMMAN — More than half of refugee households changed their diet and rationed available food to cope with food insecurity in the second quarter of 2022 (Q2). Four in five households said that they relied on less preferred and less expensive food, echoing similar results from first quarter 2022 (Q1), according to a UNHCR report. 

According to UNHCR Situation of Refugees in Jordan - Quarterly Analysis Q2 2022, almost one in three households (31 per cent) received an eviction notice in Q2, up three percentage points from the first quarter. More than half of refugee households could not pay their electricity bills, according to the UNHCR report.

Access to healthcare remained stable in Q2 compared with Q1, with every eight out of 10 households able to access health services, according to the report. 

Refugee households’ income has risen to an average of JD258 in Q2, a 2 per cent increase since Q1, but it remains at a lower level than quarter three (Q3), 2021. Work-based earnings remain the main source of income for Syrian households, but humanitarian assistance is the main source for non-Syrian refugee households, according to the report.

 On average, households spent more than they earned in Q2: with average household expenditures exceeding income by JD50. This means that refugee reliance on debt increased. About 60 per cent of total household expenditure was spent on food, rent and health, according to the UNHCR report.

There has been slight improvement in the proportion of Syrian households holding debt, but the proportion of overall households with debt remained high in Q2, with nine in 10 Syrian and non- Syrian households in debt, according to the UNHCR report.

The employment rate of refugees remained stable at 23 per cent in Q2 as compared to Q1. However, employment has not recovered to Q3, 2021 levels. The employment rate among women remained low, at 6 per cent.

The number of households resorting to emergency coping strategies has been on the rise since Q3, 2021. Nine in ten households used at least one livelihood-based coping strategy to make ends meet in Q2, according to the UNHCR report.

Um Tariq, a Syrian refugee who lives in Jordan with her son and sister-in-law, told The Jordan Times that “life in Jordan is getting more expensive. For example food, transportation and rent are so expensive. To deal with the high prices, we are reducing the use of transportation and are eating less food.”

Another Syrian refugee, Mohammed Zalloum, said: “I came to Jordan in 2014 with my four children and my wife. I work as a day labourer in the construction field. We get help from the UN less and less, and sometimes we get help from the charities. We have changed our habits, because everything is expensive in Jordan: the rent and food and even the clothes.”

“We face many challenges and we need continuous support,” Zalloum added.