Medecins Sans Frontieres closes refugee clinic in Jordan

Aid group still operates a hospital in the kingdom

Patients enter the MSF non-communicable diseases clinic in Irbid. Jordan, March 2020. Photo: Mohammed Sanabani / MSF

The international medical aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has closed its non-communicable disease clinic in a Syrian refugee camp in Jordan.

MSF said last month it closed the 40-bed clinic in the Zaatari camp because of “improved access to chronic disease treatment in Jordan”.

It said 5,000 patients were treated in the clinic for hypertension, diabetes, asthma, cardiovascular diseases and other ailments.

Around two-thirds were Syrian refugees and the rest Jordanians.

MSF, which has had operations in Jordan since 2006, still operates a reconstructive surgical hospital in Amman, where war-wounded can receive treatment, and administrative offices in Amman.

Jordan has around 600,000 Syrian refugees, with 20 per cent of them living in two desert camps, Zaatari and Azraq. Movement outside the camps is restricted.

Another 10,000 to 13,000 people have been stuck for years in the Rukban camp in no-man's land on the border between Syria and Jordan. They are not allowed to enter the kingdom.