Document #1190330
IRB – Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (Author)
Jordan currently has over 1 million
Palestinian refugees living within its borders, "216,000 of them
still live in 10 refugee camps scattered across Jordan". Any
Palestinian refugee living in Jordan prior to 1988 may "obtain
fully valid Jordanian passports. They have the unrestricted right
to live, work, and own property in Jordan. Palestinians residing on
the West Bank may obtain passports valid for 2 years. The
Government also issues temporary Jordanian passports to [...]
Gazans resident on the East Bank who can prove they were displaced
prior to 1971."
(Source: U.S. State Department, Country Reports on Human
Rights Practices for 1989, (Washington D.C.: Government
Printing Office, 1990), p. 1451.)
An article by Robert I. Friedman ("The
Palestinian Refugees", The New York Review, 29 March 1990,
p. 36) states that Jordan is the only Arab country to offer
citizenship to Palestinian refugees. The same article, it states
that according to UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency),
"children born to refugee parents are considered refugees" (p. 36),
which accounts for the very high number of Palestinian
refugees.