Under the auspices of His Royal Highness Prince Al-Hassan bin Talal, Yarmouk University holds its fifth international conference, "Refugees in Jordan: A Vision towards the Future", which will take place on the 15th and 16th of March, 2023. The conference is organized by Yarmouk’s Centre of Refugees, Displaced Persons and Forced Migration Studies and the ALECSO Chair for Refugee, Displaced and Forced Migration in partnership with the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom.
The Director of the Refugees, Displaced Persons and Forced Migration Studies Center, occupant of the ALECSO Chair for Refugee, Displaced Persons and Forced Migration at the University, Dr. Reem Al-Kharouf, said that the conference comes in response to the developments of the refugee crises in the region, Jordan in particular. Such crises require, she explained, extensive efforts of research relying on studies, statistics, and figures to enable decision-makers to establish certain work mechanisms and strategies to direct policies and rationalize decisions related to the field of asylum and refugee issues. She then mentioned that the conference which is held in partnership with the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom comes in pursuit of ambitious and serious scientific insights and results on refugee issues, which reflects the Center's strategies and the University’s noble mission. She added that the conference will discuss a number of topics dealing with human dignity, deprivation, humanization of statistics, health, medical and psychological sciences, in addition to certain economic and political axes.
For his part, the Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom, Mr. Jörg Dehnert, expressed his happiness for cooperating with Yarmouk University on issues of asylum, provision of psychological and educational support for refugees, and enhancement of opportunities to benefit from refugees’ energies and skills. He then emphasized that the Friedrich Naumann Foundation believes that supporting refugees is better conducted through providing education, training and rehabilitation opportunities for them, enabling them to be self-reliant, active, and productive in their host societies.
Interestingly, the conference will address topics of communication and communication technology, human and social sciences and media, future studies, the global system and future challenges, environmental studies and sustainable development, and legal protection for refugees in international and national legislation. These topics will get addressed in a series of specialized qualitative seminars and training sessions presented by several university professors, experts, and representatives of local and international partners coming from several countries like the United States of America, Chad, Italy, Canada, the Netherlands, Senegal, Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Sudan, Libya, and Palestine, in addition to Jordan. Also, the conference will have a creative competition for short films (documentary, dramatic, and educational) that deal with several refugee issues and community service.