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