Jordan and Lebanon receive international loans for Syrian refugees

Almost interest free, the long-term loan seeks to create opportunities for Syrian refugees in overburdened regional host states such as Jordan and Lebanon.

World Bank president Jim Kim announced the $100 million loan will go towards job creation in Jordan, after a similar award was also made to Lebanon for the schooling of Syrian refugee children living there.

Kim said the money for both states was withdrawn from a special fund reserved for poorer countries.

"We are taking money from that fund and giving it to a middle income country because Jordan has taken such extraordinary measures" in hosting refugees, Kim said.

Kim did not comment on how soon the 100,000 jobs could be created and how many of them will actually go to refugees.

"Overall, we are going to have a much deeper relationship with the World Bank in the years to come to assist Jordan economically, because this is where the World Bank intervenes,” the minister stressed," Jordan's minister of planning and international cooperation Imad Fakhoury said earlier last month when negotiations over the sum of the loan were underway.

Over 4.8 million Syrians fled their country since the conflict started in Syria five years ago.

Jordan hosts around 640,000 registered Syrian refugees, while Lebanon received over 1 million.

Cheap loans awarded by the World Bank and other international donors are among the new measures aimed at settling the refugees in the region.

Such support will curb the migration of refugees to Europe.