King Abdullah has told the BBC that the influx of hundreds of thousands of refugees into Jordan has brought the country to “boiling point.” Ahead of a major donor conference on Syria, he warned that the international community would have to do more if Jordan was going to be able to take more refugees.
"The psyche of the Jordanian people, I think it's gotten to boiling point," he told the BBC in an interview.
"It hurt us when it comes to the educational system, our healthcare," he said. "Sooner or later, I think the dam is going to burst and I think this week is going to be very important for Jordanians to see, is there going to be help - not only for Syrian refugees, but for their own future as well."
It is estimated that only one percent of Syrians refugees in Jordan have work permits, likely due to the fact that if there was to be an influx of labor onto the job market, Jordanians would suffer economically.
Jordan currently hosts around 635,000 of the UN’s 4.6 million registered Syrian refugees. The Jordanian government says that around 1 million Syrians are living in the country, if those who arrived before the conflict began in 2011 are included.
The UN is seeking $7.7 billion to fund aid for the Syrian people both within Syria and in neighboring countries.
