The refugee burden that Syria’s neighbors are shouldering is heavy and should not be borne alone. But keeping people fleeing for their lives in buffer zones inside Syrian borders risks trapping rather than protecting them.

Jordanian authorities should immediately charge or release five Al al-Bayt university students detained since March 12, 2013, after other students alleged they had desecrated a Quran and engaged in “devil worship” . The students, who deny the accusations and have neither been charged nor taken before a judge, were assaulted by a crowd of other students, and their attackers should be brought to justice, Human Rights Watch said.

Jordan is routinely and unlawfully rejecting Palestinian refugees, single males, and undocumented people seeking asylum at its border with Syria, said Human Rights Watch and Harvard Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic (the Harvard Clinic).

We write to request information on the whereabouts and condition of Khaled al-Natour, 27, a Jordanian citizen whom Saudi authorities detained at King Khaled International Airport in Riyadh on January 6, 2013. According to information we have received, he has been held incommunicado since that date and authorities have not released any information regarding the reasons for his arrest or his whereabouts. We call on you to release him without delay or for the appropriate authorities to charge him before a court of law if there is evidence that he is responsible for any criminal offense.