More than 4,000 Syrians crossed the border in Jordan over the past 24 hours, a Royal Jordanian Army officer told the nation's official news agency on Wednesday. At least 200 of the refugees were wounded.
The officer said Jordanian officials have given 4,288 Syrian refugees the necessary humanitarian aid and then transferred them to the special refugee camps set up in the country with help from the United Nations.
Since the beginning of 2013, some 89,000 Syrians have fled the violence in their native land and crossed the border to safety in Jordan. Many end up settling in the refugee camp near Mafraq, along the border.
Jordan is preparing the open a third refugee camp to meet the overwhelming numbers as Syrians continue to pour through its border at “historic” levels, The Jordan Times reported Thursday.
The new camp will reportedly have an initial capacity of 5,000 refugees, expandable to a maximum capacity of 30,000. It is to be situated in the Zarqa Governorate, between the Za'atari refugee camp outside Mafraq, and to the soon-to-be opened second camp near Zarqa.
The newspaper quoted U.N. officials as saying that Jordan will need four additional camps in order to face a Syrian exodus expected to reach an influx of 300,000 additional refugees into the Hashemite Kingdom by the end of June.