Charging registration fees as a commission from Syrian refugees in al-Mafraq, North Jordan to register them in some charitable societies has become a known practice recently, under the claim of covering the daily cost and delivery of aid.
That practice annoyed the Syrian refugees, who find it other new method to blackmail them.
On the other hand, responsible for those societies deny claims of receiving money from Syrian refugees, and explain that their roles do not exceed being mediators between the aid and relief organization from one side, and people in need from the other.
Abo Firas, confirmed to Eqtsad that he had willingly paid JOD.1 to a society hoping to receive aid, but every time he asked about his application, he got no answer, he said in pain: “I have register in an aid society and paid JOD.1 and I have not had anything yet, despite distributing aid to others”
“In that society there is a Syrian lady, and it was she, who suggested the JOD.1 fees for registration” Abo Firas said.
Other activists added that she did not stop on that, as she and her family members started collecting money over the internet and facebook pages, claiming they forward money to Syrian refugees in Jordan. “she has form a mafia to control all the charitable fund comes from abroad, and with the help of other corrupted people, they started blackmailing refugees and using their needs to take commission from each family equal to 50% of the aid value” activists detailed.
Other sources mentioned that she started to traffic Syrian girls to men from Gulf countries.
Om Taysir, a Syrian refugee lady said that she had paid registration fees to get an” Aid Card” from a society, and still waiting to benefit from it, she always received the same reply to her query about aid: “there is no aid right now, we would call you when they arrive”
Amal Shdifat, the head of Bani- Hasan Society, denies receiving a pence from Syrian refugees to cover administrational and delivering aid, and explains that it is prohibited to receive any pence from Syrian refugees, “all what we receive, we distribute” she confirms.
The one Dinar registration fees is affordable for Syrian refugees, despite they under financial shortage, but the problem is in populating the idea and make it a norm practice for other aid and relief societies.
An aid and relief volunteer, who preferred talking on condition of ambiguity, confirmed that charging Syrian refugees registration fees is considered a case of breaching the law, and there are many society which have been penalized for that practice, after complaints from Syrian refugees to the Ministry of Social Development.
One of those societies is called “relief authority” which is directed by a very bad reputed man. That society in cooperation with the Jordanian and Emirati Red Crescent, distributed yellow cards on Syrian refugees in the beginning of last year, but refugees did not receive any aid for a year, apart from January and February 2013.
Officially and from Law side, it has been mentioned in the article 10 of the Charitable Society Law, published in 1956, under the controlling and observing Societies, the following was mentioned: “it is allowed for the Minister, the organizer, the public prosecutor, or any employee commissioned by the Minister, to enter any society, inspect it and review its records to make sure that it spends money in the way it was found for”
Unfortunately,
that law still words only, because most organization and societies claim to
help Syrian refugees, ignore the law and jump over rules, with the help of
employees and inspectors from Ministry of Social Development, who cooperate
with the managers of those societies and provide them the legal cover.
Reporting by Faris Al Rifai; Translation by Yusra Ahmed
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