Human Rights Watch said that the Jordanian authorities should treat all Palestinians from Syria seeking refuge in Jordan the same as Syrian asylum seekers, who are allowed to remain and can move freely in Jordan after passing security screening and finding a sponsor.

“To its credit, Jordan has allowed tens of thousands of Syrians to cross its borders irregularly and move freely in Jordan, but it treats Palestinians fleeing the same way differently,” said Gerry Simpson, senior refugee researcher and advocate for Human Rights Watch.

“All those fleeing Syria – Syrians and Palestinians alike – have a right to seek asylum in Jordan, move freely in Jordan, and shouldn’t be forced back into a war zone.”

Since April, Jordanian authorities have automatically detained all Palestinians who enter Jordan without passing through an official border post, without the possibility of release. No such policy exists for thousands of Syrians entering the same way.

Palestinians from Syria interviewed by Human Rights Watch in Jordan said they had fled the country due to violence and general insecurity in their home areas.

In response to questions about the forced return and threatened forced return of Palestinians to Syria, Dr. Sa’d al-Wadi al-Manasir, the general secretary of the Interior Ministry, told Human Rights Watch that Jordan had “not sent any Palestinians back, period” and that there had been “no threats of refoulement, period.”

“Although Jordan has not signed or ratified the 1951 Refugee Convention, customary international refugee law and international human rights law requires it to respect the principle of non-refoulement, which prohibits countries from sending anyone back to a country where their life or freedom would be threatened or where they would face a real risk of torture or inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment,” Human Rights Watch said.

The recent interviews with Syrians and Palestinians indicate that the vast majority of recent arrivals have crossed the border at night with the help of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), because Syrian border guards at the only remaining border crossing between Syria and Jordan – at the Naseeb-Jaber crossing near the Jordanian town of Ramtha – are turning people back in large numbers. Some Syrians said they had managed to bribe the border guards – 30,000 Syrian Pounds (USD 470) per family – and a few women said they had crossed with their children without problems.

“Jordan should allow all asylum seekers caught up in the fighting in Syria to enter and stay at least temporarily,” Simpson said, “They should be welcomed without discrimination based on their national origin and without fear of arbitrary detention or forced return.”