Zaatari camp’s economy collapses with the fall of the Assad regime

AMMAN — Hundreds of shops line a five-kilometer stretch of the main thoroughfare in Zaatari, Jordan’s largest Syrian refugee camp. Each once held significant financial value in the local economy, but today “they are scrap, worth only the value of the iron they are made of,” Abu Amer, who owns four shops there, told Syria Direct. 

Zaatari’s economy has been contracting since the day former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad fell on December 8, 2024. Its 80,000 residents are reluctant to buy or sell anything outside of food and basic necessities, as they worry about their future in Jordan, which hosts around one million Syrian refugees—771,000 of whom are registered with the United Nations (UN). 

As the camp’s economy ground to a halt, the value of its shops collapsed, Abu Amer said. He estimates his own four shops have lost more than 25,000 Jordanian dinars (JOD) ($35,000) in value. He bought one of them just days before Assad fell, for 4,500 JOD ($6,344). 

A shop in Zaatari costs, on average, 5,000 JOD ($7,000), while some are valued as high as 20,000 JOD ($28,000). This is the commercial value of each shop, as owners do not own the land they are built on and have no documents proving legal ownership, Abu Amer said.

Zaatari has seen economic downturns before. In 2018, its economy was hit by the reopening of Jordan’s Jaber border crossing with Syria. Political statements related to returning refugees in Jordan to their country have also taken a toll, but never to the extent of the current collapse, residents told Syria Direct. 

Over the 12 years since Zaatari opened in July 2012, it gradually transformed from a camp of tents into what now resembles an informal city of prefabricated caravans roofed with corrugated metal. Residents started thriving businesses, building shops from materials available to them: caravan panels, sheets of metal and iron columns. 

A shop constructed from corrugated metal panels and caravan walls sells household goods on al-Saudi Street in Jordan’s northern Zaatari camp for Syrian refugees, 1/11/2020 (Syria Direct)

Declining sales

Four years ago, Abdulrahman bought a shop in Zaatari for 6,500 JOD ($9,000). The materials it is made of—corrugated metal, iron columns and decor—are worth around 1,000 JOD ($1,400), and could “make up for a small part of my loss” if the camp administration allowed shop owners to “disassemble and dispose of” their businesses, he told Syria Direct. 

Since opening his clothing store, Abdulrahman only used the profits to cover monthly expenses, using the rest of his earnings as capital “to expand my business, but suddenly we lost everything,” he said. 

In the month since Assad fell, Abdulrahman’s sales fell by half. Still, he is better off than others, as “some customers are buying new clothes to prepare for returning to Syria,” he said. 

Abbas, who owns a shop in Zaatari selling and buying used furniture, said his business “completely stopped since the regime fell—not a dinar has come in.” Camp residents “are saving what money they have, in case they are forced to return.” 

Most refugees in Zaatari “live in poverty, and don’t have the money to go back to Syria,” which accounts for the “large decline in sales,” Abbas told Syria Direct. Before December 8, his shop was valued at JOD 5,000 ($7,000), not including inventory. “Today, nobody would buy it for a dinar,” he said. 

With the value of their shops evaporating, the inventory inside is another possible loss, Abu Amer said. One of his shops, which sells construction, sanitation and electrical materials, holds inventory worth about 40,000 JOD ($56,000). With no customers, he offered it at half price to wholesalers outside Zaatari, but “they refused to buy,” he said. 

Camp residents are circulating reports of Jordanian authorities imposing “fees” on some goods Syrians transport back to their country, Abu Amer said, calling for any such decisions to be reconsidered to allow traders to “transport their goods and mitigate their loss.” 

Syria Direct found no published official decision and contacted Jordan Customs to ask about any conditions applied to Syrians transporting goods and furniture over the border, but received no response by the time of publication. 

Foggy future

Since the regime fell, Umm Farid, 40, from Syria’s southern Daraa province, has cut her family’s spending to “food and drink, at a minimum” as she tries to “save up some money to pay for the costs of returning,” she told Syria Direct. 

Her family has no immediate plans to return, but she fears “we will be pressured to go back, or forcibly returned. Then who would pay the costs for us?” Jordan’s Directorate of Nationality and Foreigners’ Affairs said at the end of December that the country will not force Syrian refugees to return. 

Some of Umm Farid’s neighbors have started selling some of their furniture “for half its real value, to have some money in their pockets in the event we are forced to return,” she added. 

Camp residents are repeating rumors and fears that Amman could take steps to put economic and legal pressure on refugees to return, such as making it more difficult to renew work permits or closing more professions to Syrian workers, four refugees in the camp told Syria Direct. 

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has sought to reassure refugees in Zaatari, warning them not to rush into a decision to return, since Syria is not yet stable. Still, “the rumors are louder, and people are scaring each other,” Abdulrahman said. 

“It looks like the UNHCR has nothing to do with what is happening, and is separate from reality,” Abu Amer said. “While some refugees say there is compensation for us, the UNHCR goes after us even for caravans we bought at our own expense.” 

The Jordanian government requires refugees returning to Syria from Zaatari to obtain a clearance document from the UNHCR, which is only provided once they have returned any caravans in their possession, four camp residents told Syria Direct. 

Syria Direct reached out to UNHCR Jordan for clarification, but received no response by the time of publication. However, one Syrian volunteer who works with the UNHCR in Zaatari confirmed it “requires that refugees hand over the caravans they received from it, and does not allow anyone to sell, buy or transport them,” which has been the practice for 12 years. 

If “a refugee cannot return the caravans in the same condition they were received, or has taken them apart to build a house from the panels,” which is the case of many residents, “the UNHCR asks that the whole house be handed over,” the volunteer added, asking not to be named because he is not authorized to speak to the media. 

Zaatari “contains more than 27,000 caravans and infrastructure created over the years,” the source added. “We don’t know how they will be dealt with in the future.” While there are “calls to allow residents to transport their caravans to Syria when they return, the decision so far is to hand them over,” he added. 

As all of Zaatari’s residents face an uncertain future, there is little that traders and shop owners can do but try to sell their goods for less than they are worth and salvage what they can from businesses that were once an important economic lifeline, Abdulrahman said. 

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