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Asylum seekers walk along Roxham Rd. in 2017, making their way towards the U.S.-Canada border. More than 50,000 migrants have entered Canada at irregular crossings since 2017.

Deborah Amos

Deborah Amos covers the Middle East for NPR News. Her reports can be heard on NPR's award-winning Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and Weekend Edition.

In 2009, Amos won the Edward Weintal Prize for Diplomatic Reporting from Georgetown University and in 2010 was awarded the Edward R. Murrow Lifetime Achievement Award by Washington State University. Amos was part of a team of reporters who won a 2004 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award for coverage of Iraq. A Nieman Fellow at Harvard University in 1991-1992, Amos returned to Harvard in 2010 as a Shorenstein Fellow at the Kennedy School.

In 2003, Amos returned to NPR after a decade in television news, including ABC's Nightline and World News Tonight, and the PBS programs NOW with Bill Moyers and Frontline.

When Amos first came to NPR in 1977, she worked first as a director and then a producer for Weekend All Things Considereduntil 1979. For the next six years, she worked on radio documentaries, which won her several significant honors. In 1982, Amos received the Prix Italia, the Ohio State Award, and a DuPont-Columbia Award for "Father Cares: The Last of Jonestown," and in 1984 she received a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for "Refugees."

From 1985 until 1993, Amos spend most of her time at NPR reporting overseas, including as the London Bureau Chief and as an NPR foreign correspondent based in Amman, Jordan. During that time, Amos won several awards, including a duPont-Columbia Award and a Breakthru Award, and widespread recognition for her coverage of the Gulf War in 1991.

A member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Amos is also the author of Eclipse of the Sunnis: Power, Exile, and Upheaval in the Middle East (Public Affairs, 2010) and Lines in the Sand: Desert Storm and the Remaking of the Arab World (Simon and Schuster, 1992).

Amos is a Ferris Professor at Princeton, where she teaches journalism during the fall term.

Amos began her career after receiving a degree in broadcasting from the University of Florida at Gainesville.

  • Refugees at the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan try to squeeze on one of the buses heading back to Syria. Syrian refugees have been coming to Jordan for two years, but some are now starting to head home.
    Reversing Direction, Some Syrian Refugees Now Head Home
    Deborah Amos
    Syrian refugees have been pouring into Jordan since the war broke out. But over the past month, more Syrian refugees went back than came to Jordan. The returnees cite rough conditions in the Jordanian camps and recent rebel advances.
  • Jordanian protesters chant slogans against corruption during a March 15 anti-government demonstration in Amman. Jordanians have held Arab Spring-inspired protests since 2011, demanding political reforms and anti-corruption measures. The protests have been peaceful.
    In A Rough Neighborhood, Jordan Clings To Its Stability
    Deborah Amos
    Amid the turbulent Middle East, Jordan remains stable — for now. But internal and external pressures are mounting. From within, a faltering economy and a popular demand for a say in how the country is governed. And from without, a flood of refugees from Syria that are straining resources.
  • Refugees fill cans with water inside a camp in Baalbek, Lebanon, for Syrians who have fled the fighting in their country.
    As Doctors Leave Syria, Public Health Crisis Looms
    Deborah Amos
    As the civil war continues, a new study says Syria's health care system is near collapse. Outbreaks of disease are on the rise in the country, and refugees sheltered beyond the border are also at great risk.
  • A Jordanian woman surfs the Web at an office in the Amman, Jordan, on Sept. 30, 2009. The country's government is under fire from media activists for blocking hundreds of websites across the kingdom.
    Jordan Accused Of Targeting Online Dissent
    Deborah Amos
    It's happened across the Middle East — and now it's happening in Jordan. The country's government has cracked down on news and other Internet sites. A new law requires those sites to be registered with the government and have a member of Jordan's press council on staff. Some are calling it another form of censorship.
  • U.S. War Planes Participate In Exercises In Jordan
    Deborah Amos
    Jordan is hosting major military exercises known as Eager Lion 2013. More than 15,000 soldiers from 18 countries, including the U.S., will be participating. The war games kicked off as Syria's civil war rages next door.
  • Syrian President Bashar Assad reiterated his intention to remain in his current position during a television interview last week. The Syrian president and his army have been looking stronger in recent weeks, many analysts say.
    Is Syria's Bashar Assad Getting The Upper Hand?
    Deborah Amos
    Since the Syrian uprising began, the opposition often seemed to have the momentum. But that dynamic seems to have changed recently. President Bashar Assad remains defiant and his army seems to be faring better, with help from Lebanon's Hezbollah militia.
  • This image provided by the Syrian Revolution against Bashar Assad and released May 2 shows soldiers loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad standing amid dead bodies at Bayda village, in the mountains outside the coastal city of Banias, Syria.
    Teaching The Rules Of War In Syria's Vicious Conflict
    Deborah Amos
    War crimes are increasingly defining the conflict in Syria. But a recent workshop for opposition fighters held in southern Turkey hopes to teach them international humanitarian law that helps them be "Fighters Not Killers."
  • U.S. Point Man On Syria Meets With Rebels Inside Syria
    Steve Inskeep
    Ambassador Robert Ford crossed into northern Syria on Wednesday. The secret visit was confirmed by Syrian activists at the media office at the Bab al-Salama crossing on the Turkish frontier.
  • Robert Ford, the State Department's point man on Syria policy, appears before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on April 11.
    Top U.S. Official Meets With Rebels Inside Syria
    Deborah Amos
    Ambassador Robert Ford, the State Department's point man on Syrian policy, met with the head of the Aleppo military council on Wednesday. Syrian rebels thanked him for the delivery of some 65,000 MREs. Both the visit and the shipment appear to be a sign of support for Gen. Salim Idriss, the rebels' commander.
  • Thousands Of Syrians Ride Buses To Refugee Camps
    Deborah Amos
    Morning Edition rides along with Andrew Harper of the UNHCR to the Syrian border. Roughly 3,000 Syrians each day wait for buses to take them to refugee camps in Jordan.