Jordanian authorities have “forcibly evicted” about 100 people from an informal refugee camp hosting displaced Palestinians, according to an NGO.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported on Tuesday that the Greater Amman Municipality (GAM) demolished 25 homes housing at least 101 people, as well as shops, in the capital’s al-Mahatta camp in November and December last year.

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The humanitarian organisation said the evicted people were not given adequate consultation, notice, compensation, or relocation assistance as the authorities cleared the way for a town planning project.

‘Encroached upon’

“Displacing families and disrupting their livelihoods without adequate safeguards and fair compensation leaves dozens of people with few places to seek help,” said Adam Coogle, HRW’s deputy Middle East director.

The al-Mahatta camp, which is said to house approximately 8,000 people from Palestinian families displaced by the 1948 Nakba, is not recognised as a refugee camp by the Jordanian government.

The city’s authorities said in December that GAM’s four-year “Strategic Plan” for the city running to 2026 includes traffic improvements, increasing green space, and reducing population density in informal settlements.

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The demolition operations also aim to reclaim lands owned by the Amman Municipality that have been “encroached upon” and on which buildings have been erected, the city said, according to the Alghad outlet.

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Dozens of residents now displaced claim to have been left in the lurch, saying they were given only “two weeks to a month’s notice” to leave their homes and “vague verbal promises of compensation of 80 Jordanian dinars [$113] per square metre, with limited transparency regarding the process or timeline”, HRW reports.

The NGO quoted Amman Mayor Yousef al-Shawarbeh as saying that the displaced Palestinians were not entitled to compensation as they were “encroaching on state property”, explaining that they had been instead offered a “donation”.

The demolition of homes and shops at al-Mahatta was conducted despite an official pledge from former Prime Minister Omar Razzaz in 2019 to safeguard residents’ homes after a previous attempt to evict them in 2017.