Jordan - IOM this week officially handed over two buses donated by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) to Jordan’s Ministry of Health.

The 50-seater buses have been used by IOM to transport refugees from Jordan’s border with Syria to the camps inside the country for the past 2.5 years, as part of a DFID-funded project.

IOM Jordan Chief of Mission Enrico Ponziani thanked DFID for its donation of the vehicles and ongoing support. “This allowed IOM to ensure the safe and humane transportation of 464,719 refugees from border reception areas to camps between January 2013 and June 2015, as well as emergency health assistance services,” he said.

The operation of the buses will now be taken over by the Ministry of Health, which will use them to serve the health needs of the Syrian refugees and Jordanian host communities through health campaigns throughout the country.

DFID funding has also supported IOM’s distribution of shoes to 31,201 Syrian refugees in Jordan’s Azraq Camp, who left everything they owned behind as they fled the war. It has also provided 1,723 refugees with vouchers for non-food relief items, as well as paying for fit-to-travel health assessments and other health services.

For further information, please contact Jessica Dietlein at IOM Jordan, Tel: +962 78 994 3975, Email: jdietlein@iom.int