As Syrian refugees leave Zaatari, some bring their ‘caravans’ with them

PARIS — Last week, when Muhammad Abdulhalim (a pseudonym) returned to Syria’s southern Daraa province with his wife and children after 13 years in Jordan, a piece of the Zaatari refugee camp came with them. 

Despite prohibitions on doing so, the family brought their caravan—the prefabricated housing unit supplied by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) to Zaatari residents—to serve as a temporary residence in Daraa.

The decision to return to Syria was not easy. Abdulhalim fled his hometown of Jassem with his parents and siblings in 2012, when he was just 16 years old. He spent nearly half his life in Zaatari, where he married and where his three children were born. It became a kind of home. 

Still, “longing for Syria” drew him back, he told Syria Direct. Hoping to “build my future and my family’s future in my country,” he said goodbye to his relatives in Zaatari and crossed the border last week. 

For now, Abdulhalim is staying at the home of a brother in Jassem while he puts his family’s disassembled caravan back together. He is setting it up alongside the family home in the city, which was partially damaged by Assad regime shelling in 2015.

Refugees in Zaatari camp are required to return their caravans to the camp’s administration before returning to Syria. They are not allowed to bring the housing units, corrugated metal panels or water tanks, and are not allowed to sell them within the camp. 

However, for years caravans and metal panels have changed hands in Zaatari, bought and sold as residents crafted larger homes or used the disassembled pieces to set up businesses in the camp. As a result, some of those returning search for “illegal” ways to sell their caravans or bring them to Syria. Abdulhalim smuggled his caravan out “through some middlemen in the camp,” he said. 

More than 141,000 refugees have returned from Jordan since the Assad regime fell in December 2024, UNHCR Jordan spokesperson Yousef Taha told Syria Direct. That figure includes 20,156 refugees who returned from Zaatari camp and 8,600 from Azraq camp.

Syrians leaving Zaatari “must complete a specific set of procedures with the camp administration,” which falls under the Jordanian Ministry of Interior’s Syrian Refugee Affairs Directorate (SARD), as well as UNHCR Jordan, “to ensure their rights and safety,” an interior ministry official told Syria Direct. This includes formally requesting return, obtaining a clearance and handing over caravans to the UNHCR. 

Once these steps are complete, “refugees are given official correspondence addressed to the relevant authorities and the Borders and Residency Department to facilitate their exit from the camp and return to their country,” the official added. 

‘We left as children and returned as parents’

Since returning to Syria weeks ago, Salim Hamed (a pseudonym) has been living with his wife and children in a caravan he brought from Zaatari and installed in the courtyard of his damaged house in Inkhil, a city in the northern Daraa countryside. 

Hamed fled Inkhil in 2013 at the age of 18, and returned to his country with a wife and children. “We left as children and returned as parents,” he said. Marriages and births in countries of asylum like Jordan have swelled Syrian families, leaving some with no housing of their own to return to.

In Zaatari, Hamed bought two caravans, which he used to create the home where he married, became a father and completed his university studies. In 2018, after a fire, he had to buy two more caravans at his own expense. 

UNHCR Jordan provided “sleeping mattresses and two cooking pots only,” he said, asking not to be named for the safety of his parents and brothers, who remain in the camp. 

The entrance to Salim Hamed’s new house in Inkhil, 25/8/2025 (Salim Hamed/Syria Direct)

“After the fall of the Assad regime, which was the reason we were displaced, I decided to return. There is no life in Zaatari—we were the living dead,” Hamed said. He pointed to a “lack of work opportunities, and the difficulty of life.”

In addition to a clearance document from the UNHCR, returning refugees need a permit that details the belongings they are transporting back to Syria, and another allowing a moving truck to enter the camp. Hamed had to turn over one of the caravans he bought to the UNHCR to obtain these documents, he said. 

A security permit issued by the Zaatari camp administration includes a detailed list of the furniture the applicant wishes to take out of the camp. Accordingly, the applicant is allowed to hire a Jordanian truck to enter the camp and transport the belongings to Syria. (Syria Direct)

As for the second caravan, Hamed “broke it down into small pieces and loaded them with household items in the vehicle that took us from Zaatari to Inkhil,” he said. He paid “200 Jordanian dinars (JOD) to a Syrian broker in the camp” who in turn said he would pay a member of camp security to sign off on the exit while “looking the other way and not inspecting the contents of the vehicle,” he said. 

The official source from Jordan’s Ministry of Interior rejected “this allegation, in full and in part,” adding it “offends Jordanian national efforts based on justice and transparency.”

Refugees “can take private possessions and materials purchased or obtained by them, such as furniture, clothing, appliances and personal items,” the official said, but “are not allowed to take out the caravans, water tanks or solar panels when they leave the camp and return to their country.” 

The UNHCR owns the caravans, while “some international donor organizations share ownership of water tanks and solar panels,” he added, stressing that “a refugee’s right is limited to use of these items during the period of asylum.” In the event a returnee “proves ownership of such items, he is allowed to take them upon departure.”

One Syrian refugee in Zaatari, who works organizing returns from the camp, told Syria Direct “the number of caravans being smuggled to Syria is small.” He considered it unlikely that bribes are being paid, and said the practice is “very limited” if present. 

“There is a loophole people exploit to transport caravans to Syria, but not all returnees can use it,” the source added, speaking on condition of anonymity. Namely, “for there to be at least one person in the truck moving the goods who has obtained all the necessary permits [including clearance], and other returnees pass their caravans along with him.”

Jordanian security patrols have been active in Zaatari over the past two weeks, inspecting the camp and those preparing to leave while “confiscating any pipes, [water] tanks, caravans or metal panels being loaded onto trucks,” the source added. Interventions can extend to arrests or fines in order to “clamp down and prevent smuggling.” 

At the Jaber-Nasib border crossing, through which refugees return to Syria, “the procedures were easy and quick on the Jordanian side,” Hamed said. “On the Syrian side, there are brokers who facilitate entry, in exchange for bribes—otherwise you have to wait a day or two,” he added. He paid $50 to a broker who “got my papers stamped, and entered without being searched.” 

Almost a month since returning to Syria, Hamed has found “the caravan is not ideal housing,” he said. “It isn’t bulletproof or fireproof, especially with the frequent random shooting at night. But it is better than nothing.” 

As for Abdulhalim, he plans to stay in his caravan until he finishes repairing his father’s house, which he estimates will cost more than $6,000. “Everything I, my father and brothers earned in Jordan is barely enough,” he said. “We left as one family and returned as four that will share the house once it is repaired—each family to a room.” 

A new house belonging to one of Hamed’s neighbors, also made of caravans its owner brought back from Zaatari camp to Inkhil, northern Daraa, 25/8/2025 (Salim Hamed/Syria Direct)

‘How would we pay?’

One month ago, Abu Qusay al-Haraki returned to al-Maliha al-Gharbiya, a town in the eastern Daraa countryside, after 13 years in Zaatari. Since the Assad regime fell in December, he sent money back each month to pay for repairs to his house there, which had been bombed, he told Syria Direct. 

In Zaatari, al-Haraki built a house out of four caravans and 60 metal panels he bought at his personal expense years ago. When he decided to return, he handed one caravan over to the camp administration in exchange for the necessary permits, and sold the others for a total of JOD 420 ($591), though their real value is multiple times that amount, he said. 

While al-Haraki bought the caravans, “UNHCR requires you to hand over at least one, regardless of whether you received it from them or not. It is prohibited to sell the caravans, even if they are your personal property,” al-Haraki said.

Back in January, UNHCR Jordan spokesperson Roland Schoenbauer told Syria Direct the agency was “aware of refugees buying and selling dwellings/caravans or parts of them” but that “this is UNHCR property.” He said efforts were underway “with the relevant authorities to find the best solution.” Spokesperson Taha echoed the same statement in August. 

With no solution in place, al-Haraki had few options. “Moving the caravans to Syria is expensive,” he said. “The cost of renting a 15-meter truck ranges between JOD 600 and JOD 1,000. I didn’t have the money, so I decided to sell the caravans.” 

Al-Haraki sold what he could of the caravans and panels to a Syrian trader in Zaatari. “It was 14 days before he could disassemble them and benefit from them, because of the monitoring by [Jordanian] security and UNHCR,” he said.

“If they allowed me to take the caravans to Syria, they would have provided housing for two families, or I would have sold a single caravan for $600,” he added, given the “housing crisis in my hometown.” 

“We spent 13 years in a caravan in the camp, and many families that do not have a home in Syria could return and live in a caravan in Syria if they were allowed to move them,” al-Haraki said. 

In early August, Qassem al-Hamad (a pseudonym) returned with his family from Zaatari to Inkhil, after 12 years in the camp. He is currently staying in the house of a relative—who is still in Jordan—because the repairs his own home needs cost around $7,000, which he cannot afford, he told Syria Direct. 

Before leaving Zaatari, al-Hamad sold “the caravan I received from UNHCR to cover the cost of the vehicle that took me and my family to Syria,” he said. He found a loophole in the exit procedures that allowed him to sell the caravan for JOD 200 ($281) and return to Syria without obtaining the clearance document.

“I was a refugee living on aid, with no work, so I sold the caravan to cover the costs of return,” al-Hamad said. “If we didn’t do that, how would we pay?”

Slow procedures

Three returnees Syria Direct spoke to complained about the slow process of the administrative procedures required to leave Zaatari for Syria. 

While security approvals are issued within hours, the UNHCR clearance takes between a week and a month. Finding an available truck driver presents another delay: Hamed said he waited a full month for a turn with a driver to take his family to Inkhil. 

After applying for clearance to leave Zaatari, refugees wait for a visit from a UNHCR representative in order to formally surrender their caravan. However, “there are only two representatives” in the camp, the source who works organizing transportation from the camp said. 

“Because of this slow pace, three or four families leave the camp a day—seven families at best—because the representatives cannot complete the handover process for more than this number in a single day,” he added. 

In Daraa, smuggled caravans provide a temporary solution for returnees whose homes were damaged by the war, but they are no substitute for their damaged homes. 

Abdulhalim and Hamed hoped Syria’s transitional government would provide financial help to restore their homes. “If only the government would compensate us to repair just a single room, instead of living in the caravan,” Hamed said. 

This report was updated on 8/28/2025 to reflect comments received from UNHCR Jordan after publication.

This report was originally published in Arabic and translated into English by Mateo Nelson.