AMMAN, 15 November 2007 — A survey conducted by the Norwegian research foundation, Fafo, yesterday put the number of Iraqi refugees in Jordan at between 450,000 and 500,000. Announcing the figures at a press conference, Fafo representative John Peterson said the results reached were based on the number of Iraqi families living in Jordan, immigration figures and names of subscribers to the telephone and other services.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) so far estimated the number of Iraqis who fled to Jordan in the wake of the US-led invasion of their country in 2003 at about 750,000. The UNHCR said that more than 2 million Iraqis had taken refuge in neighboring countries, mainly in Syria and Jordan.
The survey was conducted in May in cooperation with the Norwegian government and the Jordanian Statistics Department to provide “adequate information about the number of Iraqis in order to facilitate the process of dealing with them,” Peterson said.
