Dozens of small, makeshift tent settlements have sprung up across Jordan, home to thousands of Syrian refugees who don’t want to live in large, government-supervised refugee camps but can’t afford to live in towns and cities.
Aid officials say those in the makeshift camps are among the most vulnerable of close to 625,000 Syrians who fled to Jordan and have registered with the U.N. refugee agency.
Overall, nearly 3.8 million Syrians have fled their country and are now registered as refugees, according to the agency. Most face increasingly desperate circumstances as the conflict back home enters its fifth year this week.
In Jordan, most refugees settle in urban areas. Just over 100,000 live in the three main authorized refugee camps in northern Jordan.
The U.N. refugee agency says about 16,000 refugees live in tents outside the three main camps.
Some refugees say they pitched tents to be close to jobs on farms, especially during harvest season. Others say they can’t afford rent or that they don’t want to live in the authorized camps because of restrictions there.
Refugee Montaha Ali lives in a makeshift camp in Al-Aghwar, close to Jordan’s border with Israel.
“My father and one of my brothers are refugees in Lebanon’s camps, my other three brothers are refugees in Turkey and I am, with my husband, a refugee in Jordan,” she says. “The war ripped everything from us. All I wish is to be reunited with my family back in our village.”
In another camp, refugee Fatima Jassim says she struggles to feed her newborn.
“I want to see my 3-day-old daughter Marwa grow up under a roof, safe and healthy,” Jassim says. “I want to give her what I could not give her elder sisters, a good childhood.”
Here are images by Associated Press photographer Muhammed Muheisen of several tent camps of Syrian refugees in Jordan.
In this Monday, March 9, 2015 photo, Syrian refugee boys play with a ball at an informal tented settlement in Al-Aghwar, Jordan, near the border with Israel. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)
In this Friday, March 6, 2015 photo, a Syrian refugee hangs her laundry to dry at an informal tented settlement in the Jordan Valley, Jordan. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)
In this Friday, March 6, 2015 photo, Syrian refugee Fatima Jassim, 39, holds her newborn daughter as her other children play in their tent in an informal tented settlement in the Jordan Valley, Jordan. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)
In this Sunday, March 8, 2015 photo, Syrian refugee Nisreen Sami, 23, bathes her son Mohammed, 3, at their tent in an informal tented settlement near the Syrian border, on the outskirts of Mafraq, Jordan. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)
In this Monday, March 9, 2015 photo, Syrian refugee children listen to their teacher Mohammed al-Marahla, 42, a Jordanian who volunteered to teach them 6 days a week, at a makeshift school in a tent in an informal tented settlement in Al-Aghwar, Jordan, near the Israeli border. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)
In this Sunday, March 8, 2015 photo, Syrian refugee Rifaa Ahmad, 50, cuddles her granddaughter at an informal tented settlement near the Syrian border, on the outskirts of Mafraq, Jordan. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)
In this Sunday, March 8, 2015 photo, Syrian refugee Mohammed al-Awad, 19, left, cooks for his brother Abdulelah, 14, using a fire outside their tent at an informal tented settlement near the Syrian border, on the outskirts of Mafraq, Jordan. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)
In this Monday, March 9, 2015 photo, Syrian refugee Montaha Ali hangs her laundry near her tent at an informal tented settlement in Al-Aghwar, Jordan, near the border with Israel. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)
In this Friday, March 6, 2015 photo, Syrian refugee Hazar Al-Hassan, 3, watches cartoons inside her family’s tent at an informal tented settlement in the Jordan Valley, Jordan. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)
In this Sunday, March 8, 2015 photo, Syrian refugee girls chase a chicken while playing at an informal tented settlement on the outskirts of Mafraq, Jordan. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)
In this Saturday, March 7, 2015 photo, Syrian refugee Firyal Jumaa, 13, holds her 20-day-old sister Malak outside their tent at an informal tented settlement on the outskirts of Mafraq, Jordan. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)
In this Friday, March 6, 2015 photo, a Syrian refugee looks at himself in a mirror while combing his hair in his tent at an informal tented settlement in the Jordan Valley, Jordan. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)
In this Sunday, March 8, 2015 photo, a Syrian refugee woman cooks inside her tent at an informal tented settlement near the Syrian border, on the outskirts of Mafraq, Jordan. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)
In this Sunday, March 8, 2015 photo, the shadow of a Syrian refugee woman tending to her child is cast on a water reserve at an informal tented settlement near the Syrian border, on the outskirts of Mafraq, Jordan. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)
In this Friday, March 6, 2015 photo, a Syrian refugee woman washes her laundry at an informal tented settlement in the Jordan Valley, Jordan. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)
In this Saturday, March 7, 2015 photo, Syrian refugee girls walk while holding onto each other at an informal tented settlement on the outskirts of Mafraq, Jordan. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)
In this Friday, March 6, 2015 photo, an elderly Syrian refugee sits outside of her tent at an informal tented settlement in the Jordan Valley, Jordan. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)
In this Friday, March 6, 2015 photo, a Syrian refugee bathes at an informal tented settlement in the Jordan Valley, Jordan. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)
In this Sunday, March 8, 2015 photo, a Syrian refugee boils water as another woman carries fire wood at an informal tented settlement near the Syrian border, on the outskirts of Mafraq, Jordan. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)
In this Monday, March 9, 2015, photo, Syrian refugee Jawahir Alhassan, 28, walks toward her son Hamza, 5 months, to change his clothes while laying in a hammock inside their tent at an informal tented settlement in Al-Aghwar, Jordan, near the border with Israel. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)
In this Sunday, March 8, 2015 photo, Syrian refugee men dig a ditch around their tent at an Informal Tented Settlement near the Syrian border, on the outskirts of Mafraq, Jordan. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)
In this Friday, March 6, 2015 photo, a Syrian refugee washes his foot outside his tent at an informal tented settlement in the Jordan Valley, Jordan. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)
In this Sunday, March 8, 2015 photo, Syrian refugees pray in a makeshift mosque inside a tent at an informal tented settlement on the outskirts of Mafraq, Jordan. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)
In this Friday, March 6, 2015 photo, a framed photograph of Syrian refugee Shahada Hussein, who passed away in 2014, hangs inside his son’s tent at an informal tented settlement in the Jordan Valley, Jordan. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)
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