Jordan facilitates return of students studying abroad amid coronavirus pandemic

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Updated 18 April 2020
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Jordan facilitates return of students studying abroad amid coronavirus pandemic

  • Jordan has announced directives to support its citizens who are affected by the pandemic, including donating 40 percent of the PM’s salary
  • Jordan has confirmed five new COVID-19 cases on Friday, taking the total number to 407 in the country

DUBAI: Jordan announced a plan on Friday to facilitate students’ return from abroad amid the COVID-19 outbreak that has shuttered international travel and left many stranded away from home.

Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Ayman Safadi urged Jordanians abroad to “stay where they are,” but explained that those who want to return can do so through an online application system.

Those who wish to go back to Jordan can apply through safelyhome.gov.jo, Safadi said, adding priority will be given to female students, graduates, freshmen, and “people who were on a short visit abroad.”

The number of Jordanian students studying abroad stands at 35,000, according to Safadi in a report by the Jordanian News Agency.

The minister said returning Jordanians will be quarantined at hotels in the Dead Sea and other places that will be announced later.

Jordan has confirmed five new COVID-19 cases on Friday, taking the total number to 407 in the country.

Meanwhile, the Jordanian government has announced a number of directives to support its citizens who are affected by the pandemic, including donating 40 percent of the Prime Minister’s salary.

Other ministers in the government would also donate a percentage of their salaries to those hardest-hit by COVID-19.


Take back and prosecute your jailed Daesh militants, Iraq tells Europe

Updated 24 January 2026
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Take back and prosecute your jailed Daesh militants, Iraq tells Europe

RAQQA: Baghdad on Friday urged European states to repatriate and prosecute their citizens who fought for Daesh, and who are now being moved to Iraq from detention camps in Syria.

Europeans were among 150 Daesh prisoners transferred so far by the US military from Kurdish custody in Syria. They were among an estimated 7,000 militants due to be moved across the border to Iraq as the Kurdish-led force that has held them for years relinquishes swaths of territory to the advancing Syrian army.
In a telephone call on Friday with French President Emmanuel Macron, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani said European countries should take back and prosecute their nationals.
An Iraqi security official said the 150 so far transferred to Iraq were “all leaders of the Daesh group, and some of the most notorious criminals.” They included “Europeans, Asians, Arabs and Iraqis,” he said.
Another Iraqi security source said the group comprised “85 Iraqis and 65 others of various nationalities, including Europeans, Sudanese, Somalis, and people from the Caucasus region.”
They all took part in Daesh operations in Iraq, he said, and were now being held at a prison in Baghdad.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that “non-Iraqi terrorists will be in Iraq temporarily.”
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces jailed thousands of militant fighters and detained tens of thousands of their relatives in camps as it pushed out Daesh in 2019 after five years of fighting.