UPDATE ON IRAQIS IN JORDAN - JUNE 7

					  C O N F I D E N T I A L AMMAN 002458 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR PRM 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/07/2017 
TAGS: PGOV PREF IZ JO
SUBJECT: UPDATE ON IRAQIS IN JORDAN - JUNE 7 
 
REF: AMMAN 2341 AND PREVIOUS 
 
Classified By: Classified by Ambassador David Hale for reasons 1.4 (b) 
and (d) 
 
Education Programs 
------------------ 
 
					

1. (C) Jordanian Minister of Education Khalid Touqan told the
Ambassador June 7 the GoJ was comfortable with the issuance
of Requests For Proposals for summer-readiness programs
targeted at school-age Iraqi children before the regular
August 19 start of classes in Jordan's public school. Touqan
supports the idea of using vacant public classrooms for the
program, and requested that the USG work closely with his
ministry as the program is implemented.



2. (SBU) Emboffs will follow up on this offer with Ministry
of Education SecGen Tayseer Al Nahar on June 8. They will
discuss issues of access of Iraqi children to Jordanian
schools, the proposed PRM-funded summer readiness program,
and GOJ reactions to proposed education initiatives.



3. (C) UNHCR Jordan Representative Imran Riza relayed to
Ambassador June 6 that his discussions on an education plan
with the Jordanians are going well, and that he believes
UNHCR will be able to work directly with the Jordanian
Ministry of Education although the Ministry has not yet
explicitly agreed to this. Riza informed Ambassador that
UNHCR, UNICEF, and Save the Children are developing their own
action plan that they will soon present to donors.

FAFO Study


--------------------------





4. (SBU) The regional director of FAFO, the Norwegian NGO
commissioned to survey Iraqis in Jordan, told PolCouns on
June 6 that FAFO does not expect to release its final data
set to the GOJ until the end of June or early July because
they identified significantly less Iraqis than expected (see
reftel). During these additional weeks, they will conduct
additional mapping to be sure the survey presents the most
accurate results.



5. (SBU) Save the Children's Amman-based representative told
Poloff that his organization had so far registered more than
2,500 Iraqi schoolchildren for a recent educational program,
although they had anticipated many more. He suggested the
absence of greater numbers may indicate that actual numbers
of Iraqis in Jordan are lower than anticipated.

Direct Access Program


--------------------------





6. (SBU) TDY RefCoord and IOM Chief in Amman report that
processing of Iraqis under the Direct Access special referral
program began on June 3. They have since processed six cases
and have 20 additional cases ready to be interviewed.
Hale