The Syrian refugees that Ben Carson didn't see

On Saturday, presidential candidate Ben Carson visited Syrian refugees in Jordan in the Azraq camps.

But he didn't see any of the hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees who are considered "Palestinian."

Because they are not allowed to live in that camp.

In fact, for over two years, Jordan has pursued a policy of not allowing refugees from Syria whose ancestors lived in British Mandate Palestine in 1947 to enter, and they have been deporting scores of those who came in previously.

A report I quoted earlier this month explains:

In January 2013, the Jordanian government announced a non-entry policy for Palestinian refugees. Since then, those Palestinians who had been able to cross into Jordan (usually relying on forged documents or smugglers) have lived in fear of being arrested and deported back to Syria. Furthermore, Palestinians who fled to Jordan cannot legally live in the refugee camps established for Syrians, but at the same time, cannot legally work to earn money to rent housing outside of camps. The one exception is Cyber City, which is more of a detention center than a refugee camp, and where Jordanian authorities have been transferring Palestinians who are in the country clandestinely since April 2012. Palestinians are confined to Cyber City unless they decide to return to Syria.

Cyber City, which only has a few hundred Palestinians at this time, is essentially a prison.

Carson, without realizing it, witnessed discrimination against Palestinian Arabs that is much worse than  how African Americans have been treated in the US since the Civil War. They are being told to go return a war zone.

And it is not only by Jordan - Lebanon and Egypt also turn away any Syrians of Palestinian ancestry from their borders.

Over 3000 Palestinians have already been killed in Syria, and hundreds of thousands have been displaced. Yet the Arab nations who reflexively trot out their supposed concern for Palestinians every time a Western leader visits or every time they address the UN are never asked about why they have entrenched, institutional discrimination against the people they claim to support.

If Ben Carson wants to help his foreign policy credentials, he should ask Jordanian officials where the Palestinians fleeing towards Jordan are, and why Jordan welcomes 600,000 Syrians but turns away Syrian Palestinians.

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