Maryam is 18 years old, she came into Jordan 5 months ago from the city of Der’a. She spent four months in the Za’atri refugee camp before marrying her cousin, Ibrahim, and now lives in Irbid with his family. The two families are very close; 14 people in total live in that house.
They left after Ibrahim was injured, and Maryam and Ibrahim got married in the camp by her brother, Hasan. Many refugees are resorting to marrying this way and opting to register their marriages when they go back to Syria. The main problem is that to register a marriage in Jordan, they would need documents from the Syrian Embassy that they are afraid to approach.
That is not their concern, however. Maryam and her family are not registered with UNHCR, and below is statement she gave our team:
With no source of income, the family depends on remittances from relatives working in the UAE.