The Challenges of Registration of Asylum-Seekers in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan

Abstract

This study aims to identify difficulties and challenges facing countries without a National Registration Law, with the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan as model. Jordan, in compliance with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), regulates the presence of refugees and asylum seekers inside the Kingdom and at its borders in accordance with the UNHCR 1998 Memorandum of Understanding. Many such individuals have lost their identification documents when forced to leave their homelands due to armed conflict. Jordanian authorities try to solve such problems through the use of a magnetic-card system and iris scans. This study concludes that Jordan, in ratio to its population, is the second country worldwide to host the largest number of refugees. This study recommends that Jordan enact a National Asylum Law to regulate the presence of such refugees in the Kingdom.