Amsterdam sends 100s of bikes to Syrian refugees

Amsterdam is sending 1,400 abandoned bicycles from the bike depot in the western harbor area to the refugee camp Al Za'atari in Jordan. The first of four shipments of 350 bicycles were packed up on Wednesday and will be sent to Jordan by the end of this week. Paul van den IJssel, the Dutch Ambassador in Jordan, swung by the depot to lend a and with the packing. It was recently announced that the bicycle depot in Amsterdam West is running out of space because a large number of the bikes are never retrieved by their rightful owners. Only 49 percent of the bicycles in the dept are ever retrieved. Instead of being demolished, these bikes will now be sent to the Al Za'atari refugee camp in Jordan. This bicycle action is part of a larger aid program that Amsterdam has launched to support Al Za'atari. The city also shares knowledge and expertise in the fields of urban infrastructure, water management, waste management, transport and health services.