Eight victims of Jordan car crash were Syrian refugees

Nine people died in the collision between two vehicles in Mafraq governorate

A street in the Jordanian city of Mafraq, the provincial capital of Mafraq governorate. Photo: Alamy

Eight Syrian refugees were killed in a car accident in the northern Jordanian governorate of Mafraq this week, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said.

Jordanian authorities initially said that a collision between two lorries in Mafraq on Tuesday killed eight farm workers and injured 13. The authorities revised the number of dead to nine, apparently because one of the victims later died in hospital.

But the authorities did not disclose their nationalities, nor their ages.

The UNHCR said in a statement that one Jordanian citizen was among the dead and the rest were Syrian refugees.

The statement said the agency "is working closely with the local authorities to provide immediate support to the families of the deceased and the injured individuals".

Hundreds of thousands of Syrians crossed into Mafraq and other Jordanian border provinces with Syria after the outbreak of the Syrian revolt against President Bashar Al Assad in 2011. Jordanian security forces closed the border in 2014.

Large numbers of Syrian refugees in Jordan are unemployed. But some, especially among the young, work as seasonal labourers on farms in Mafraq.

The governorate is mostly desert but it has agricultural plots irrigated from groundwater that produce olives, tomatoes and cucumbers, as well as fruit, including peaches.