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Girl with bag showing EU and UN logos: the EU specialises in supplying school materials (Photo: EUobserver)

Feature

Zaatari: Birth of a new city in EU neighbourhood

Girl with bag showing EU and UN logos: the EU specialises in supplying school materials (Photo: EUobserver)

“Welcome to my neighbourhood: District 5, Street 18,” says Nour, a Syrian school teacher, as she leads EUobserver to her home: a metal container and a tent in the Zaatari refugee camp in the Jordanian desert.

She is doing well.

Her husband has a job in a fruit and vegetable shop on the “Champs-Elysees” – the UN’s humorous name for the camp’s main street.

They have saved up for a washing machine, a fan, and a TV. Two of their four children go to school and Nour finds time ...

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Author Bio

Andrew Rettman is EUobserver's foreign editor, writing about foreign and security issues since 2005. He is Polish, but grew up in the UK, and lives in Brussels. He has also written for The Guardian, The Times of London, and Intelligence Online.

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