Baqa’a was just one of six “emergency” camps set up in Jordan in 1968, to accommodate the Palestinian refugees and displaced persons, who left the West Bank and Gaza Strip as a result of the 1967 Arab-Israeli War.

The camp itself is the largest in Jordan and when it was first established, according to the United Nations had around 5,000 tents for an estimated 26,000 refugees.

To help establish a quick picture of life in Baqa’a Refugee Camp, from information that we have taken from the UN website;

There were around 16,000 enrolled pupils in the 2003/2004 school term, with a teaching staff of around 493 paid workers, with each school being run on a double shift basis.

The UN also run a general clinic and two mother and child clinics, which are staffed by 12 doctors, 2 dentists and 57 nurses and assistants – for about 1,200 patients each day.

During the month of August 2004, members of the Iraq Solidarity Campaign visited the Baqa’a Refugee Camp and had the honor of meeting some of its inhabitants.

Whilst we were in the camp, we came across people who first showed to us no hostility towards our nationality but infact were eager to share with us stories of their experiences, from leaving their homeland of Palestine to the daily struggles they face as refugees.

We spoke to people who informed us that they lived on less than one dollar a day, and usually lived in accommodation with the rest of their family, in small houses with corrugated tin roofs, with around 12 or more people.

We were told stories by concerned parents, who complained about the lack of attention that was given to very large class sizes and the lack of basic educational resources, such as text books, pens and pencils that were not eve4n given to the children of the camp.

Parents looked at us, when they spoke of stories about children whom they knew, who were illiterate.

I was told that the United Nations used to give each child free stationary but now parents had to pay and each child could also face very large class sizes when they entered the class room, one parent referred to his daughters schooling as “education without quality”.

Other cases – were children having to go to school and trying to memories their daily lessons because parents could not afford to buy the basic stationary and when I asked if the UN or some other aid agency provided free school meals or milk to the camps children, one father just laughed and told me that his son now gets a vitamin tablet each day.

Even with this apparent feeling of despair, the man who laughed at me had transpired to be Abu Ahmed, a proud man in his forties who had got laid off from his already irregular job due to him having diabetes.

He invited us to stay with him and his family for dinner but we had politely refused the offer due to timing. This was a man who had offered us his hospitality even though he was living on around one pound twenty pence per day.

I watched as he sent his young son, a football fanatic of around 11 years old who aspired to become the next David Beckham, out to a local shop for a bottle of Coke.

During his sons absence, Abu Ahmed to us about his son-in-law, Jamile who had moved to Saudi Arabia to try and improve the families quality of life. Jamile, like other children had grown up in Baqa’a Camp, but he was one of the lucky few who had close family ties outside of the camp – ties that had helped to fund his further education which had enabled him to become an architect.

It was through his son-in-law, that Abu Ahmed’s family now lived, through Jamiles monthly payments to not just his own parents, who still reside in Baqa’a but also to his wife’s family too.

On his sons return, Abu Ahmed went on to tell us about the Baqa’a Football Club. He informed us that Baqa’a had its own premier league club, with a couple of players in the Jordanian National Team and this fact alone provided a source of inspiration to many of the camps young boys and men.

The club has apparently invested its money back into the refugee camp, by buying some of the tiny little shops, like most shops in Baqa’a and renting them out as small businesses. It was partly through the small revenues, which were brought in by the rents that Baqa’a Football Club was able to develop itself to benefit its local community.

Before we left Abu Ahmeds house, it was his turn to ask us questions. He asked me questions, curious and amazed by this Arab with a broad English accent who could not speak Arabic but he also asked questions about life in the UK. Like other people who we encountered in Baqa’a Camp, they expressed much interest about our lives and each seemed to know much more about our countries political situation – especially since the war and invasion of Iraq.

Abu ahmed enquired why more people from the United Kingdom had not visited the refugee Camp and I had to explain, that I had not heard of it until a member of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, had told me about Baqa’a two days before my flight.

As we left his home, I asked him if he wanted me to relay one message back to the people of the Britain, he looked at me and ran a hand across his face before speaking to me; “tell the people in the west, we are waiting to go back to our homes in Palestine, here in camps we have no hope and we live in despair.”

On our way out of Baqa’a Camp, I took one last look at the maze of back-to-back houses, that seemed to run on forever around me and a brilliant sun shine still stood high in the Arabian sky.

That night, as I sat in my fathers apartment in the centre of Jordan’s capital, Amman, I thought about the people I had spoken to in Baqa’a and about Abu Ahmed and his football fanatic son and as I sat looking out of my fathers window. Over a land that houses such wonders as Petra and Madaba, a land where the profits once roamed up on the great Mt. Nebo – sat this refugee camp, called Baqa’a.

By Hussein Al-alak

Hussein Al-alak is 24 years old and is the chairman of the Iraq Solidarity Campaign (UK) and also the founder of the Middle East Cultural Association, an educational organization that has been established to support and draw attention to the situation that people face in the Baqa’a Refugee Camp in Jordan.

To give a donation to assist the work for Baqa’a Refugee Camp, please make cheques/PO payable to the Middle East Cultural Association and send them to MECA, PO BOX 202, Manchester, M21 7WD, the UK.