Radio 4 drama sheds light on life at Zaatari, Jordan's largest refugee camp

The plight of Syrian refugees making the perilous journey to Europe from Damascus will be the subject of a week-long BBC Radio 4 drama series this week.

Welcome to Zaatari is set in the vast refugee camp of the same name, an hour’s drive from Amman, the Jordanian capital. It is a portrait of a middle-class Syrian family, like many now fleeing Syria, confronting impossible choices.

One of the central characters, Reem, is 16, and had ambitions to become a doctor. Now, her mother and one of her brothers want her to marry a Jordanian as they believe this will secure her future. In another subplot, one of her other brothers, still in Damascus, wants to smuggle his family to Europe. The drama is based on the everyday reality of refugees in Zaatari, home to 79,900 refugees, effectively mking it one of Jordan’s biggest cities.

“Families have to face the dilemma of marriage for young girls. What are the alternatives? Not education,” said Charlotte Eagar, one of the show’s co-producers, who visited the camp as part of her research.

Marriage to a Jordanian or Saudi is seen as one of the least bad options in ensuring a woman has at least a semblance of security in her life. But as Eagar points out, that option may backfire.

“There are stories now of Jordanian men sending their young wives back to Zaatari after a few months because they have got fed up,” she said.

While Reem’s family decide on her fate, one of her brothers, Imad, is fleeing Damascus for Europe. His odyssey is conveyed through constant updates to the family through WhatsApp, the messaging service that’s free as long as there is internet access.

“WhatsApp has transformed migration from a terrifying trip into the unknown to an instantly updatable rendezvous with friends and family who have gone before,” said Eagar. “It’s why the profile of migrants has changed from lone young men, to whole families with small children.”

Another key character is Yara, a Jordanian woman from Amman, who on starting work in the camp had to confront the issue of domestic violence.