CIRSD President Vuk Jeremic visited the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan, the largest in the Middle East, housing nearly 100,000 Syrians who fled the civil war in their home country.
Jordan is one of the most immediately affected countries in the region, hosting an estimated 1.4 million refugees from Syria and Iraq, out of a total population of 6.5 million.
Jeremic was in Jordan to lead a delegation of scholars and experts affiliated with the Boston Consortium for Arab Region Studies (BCARS), including its director, Northeastern University professor Denis Sullivan.
The fact-finding mission to Jordan marks the launch of a two-year joint project by CIRSD and BCARS, conducted under the umbrella of the Carnegie Corporation of New York and entitled "Learning from the Middle East, North Africa, and the Balkans: Policy Development Related to Transnational Crises and Refugee Flows." The project will conduct a series of workshops, study visits, and conferences in Jordan, Turkey, Germany, and Serbia. The project's conclusions will be presented in the headquarters of the Carnegie Corporation of New York.
In the Jordanian capital Amman, Jeremic met with Prince Hassan bin Talal, one of the Middle East's most respected public intellectuals and the oldest member of the Jordanian royal family. He also met with Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh and other senior officials. He informed his interlocutors about CIRSD's ongoing activities and conferences, who expressed their interest in participating in them.
