http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/09/world/middleeast/syrian-refugees-jordan-border-united-nations.html 2014-10-08 20:41:46 Jordan Turning Away Syrian Refugees, Aid Agencies Say Fear of militants may have led to restrictions, analysts said, as the United Nations said it had not recorded any Syrian refugees entering Jordan in the past week. === AMMAN, Jordan — “We have not recorded any Syrian refugees crossing into Jordan in the past week,” said Andrew Harper, the top official with the The International Organization for Migration concurred, saying that no Syrians had been transported from the border area to refugee camps in Jordan since Oct. 1, when 44 Syrians crossed over. However, the Jordanian government denied that the border had been closed to anyone other than those deemed a security risk. “There is no change on our open-border policy,” said a government spokesman, Mohammad Momani. “Those who are injured, women and children continue to cross, but the numbers of those entering are subject to the security assessment in the field.” Jordan is one of the Middle Eastern countries that have “Tightening the border is a logical reaction from the government’s perspective,” said “It’s a new reality, but we don’t know what the end game for the region will be, so there is a lot of instability and fear,” he said. Jamil Nimri, a member of Parliament, agreed. “Jordan has entered a war with ISIS and there is indeed severe security concerns,” he said. “I believe there is a connection between the bombing campaign against ISIS and the fact that no refugees have been allowed into Jordan.” More than three million Syrians, half of them children, have fled the country’s civil war to neighboring countries, including Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan. Until mid-2013, the flow of refugees from Syria to Jordan exceeded 2,000 per day. This rate then dropped to several hundred until last week’s sudden halt, refugee agencies said. As of early October, 1.15 million Jordan, with a population of 6.5 million, has drawn waves of refugees in the past, but the crisis in Syria is particularly severe and is Jordan’s official news agency, Petra, reported last month that the authorities had arrested several supporters of the Islamic State who were accused of recruiting for the group and using the Internet to promote extremist views. Lawmakers recently approved several amendments to Jordan’s antiterrorism laws, including one that criminalizes any attempt to join terrorist organizations or recruit on their behalf. According to a report released in mid-September by the United Nations refugee agency, 64 percent of refugees arriving in Jordan, most from northern Syria, cited fear of the Islamic State as the primary reason they fled. In the sprawling border refugee camp in Jordan is still accepting Although Jordan is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention, the United Nations refugee agency and the government signed an agreement in 1998 specifying that asylum seekers may stay in Jordan pending a determination of their refugee status.