Report claims Jordan forcibly returns Syrian refugees to conflict zones; Jordan denies claim

BEIRUT – An international rights group says Jordanian authorities have forcibly deported "vulnerable Syrian refugees," including wounded men and unaccompanied children. Jordan has denied the claim.

Human Rights Watch said Monday that those deported include a group of 12 Syrians who had been receiving treatment at a rehabilitation center and four refugees, three of them children, whom Jordanian border police stopped near the Syrian border.

Human Rights Watch quoted a Jordanian official as denying the refugees had been deported, saying they were taken to other unnamed hospitals. Officials in Amman could not be immediately reached for comment.

Syria's civil war, which began as an uprising against President Bashar Assad in March 2011, forced 3.2 million people to flee the country. Jordan, Syria's southern neighbor, hosts 619,000 refugees.