Zaatari

Zaatari became the world’s largest refugee camp in 2012, forming in just three months as a result of the war in Syria. It has since shrunk in part due to the rise of Azraq, another vast camp run on entirely different economic rules.

A city emerges

Five years ago anyone heading east from Mafraq would see nothing for hundreds of miles. Highway 15 leaves the town in northern Jordan and cuts its way through the desert, eventually hitting the Iraqi border and continuing on to Baghdad. Today things are different. After driving for 10 minutes or so for what looks like a city, but in miniature, appears on the right. Close up, it becomes clear that it is no illusion — the white houses really are tiny. A haphazard web of electricity cable hangs precariously overhead. There is barbed wire all over the place and Jordanian guards sit tending to their guns. This is Zaatari, home to around 80,000 Syrian refugees.

As an economy it performs well. One UN official reckons that the main market streets turns over 8 million dinars every a year, or close to $4,000 per adult every year. Its employment rate, at 65%, is higher than France’s. All this means Zaatari is an economic mystery. How did people who arrived in the dead of night with nothing other than the children on their backs create all this?