A long-term lack of funding for the UN’s relief agency
for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, now
represents an “existential” threat, its top
official warned on Thursday.
Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General of
the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine
Refugees, said that chronic and drastic funding
shortfalls could even precipitate its
collapse.
“Today, austerity has reached its limit and is impacting the
quality of our services”, he said, highlighting
that despite “rampant” poverty, the agency can no
longer increase the number of refugees that it supports,
.
He added that "austerity reaches its limit when we put 50
children in a classroom or leave the most deprived children
without transportation or stationery...when a doctor can only
spend three minutes with a patient...[and] when many teachers and
sanitation laborers are daily paid workers. These are
frontline staff and it really pains me that UNRWA cannot yet give
them more stable jobs”.
Distress
In an open letter to Palestine
refugees, Mr. Lazzarini wrote that he was
“painfully aware” that further uncertainty
about UNRWA’s “dire” financial situation
added another layer of distress
to their lives.
“When everything around you falls apart, being able to
send your children to school, receive health care and be part of
a social safety net are a lifeline”, he added.
The Commissioner-General spoke of
his many meetings with Palestine refugees throughout
the year, including children in Gaza who were mentally
scarred in May by 10 days of rocket fire
and airstrike exchanges between Israeli forces and
armed groups in the enclave.
He also recalled encountering refugee families in the West
Bank “living with the daily threat of forced displacement;
young graduates in Burj Baranjeh camp whose only hope
for a better future was to emigrate through dangerous migration
routes; and refugees in Jordan who faced immense financial
hardships under COVID-19”.
Today, well over
five million Palestinians have registered
with UNRWA as refugees in the West Bank, including East
Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip, Lebanon, Syria and
Jordan.
Political attacks
In his open letter, Mr. Lazzarini said that
since 2018, political attacks on the agency's
mandate had threatened to sever the “lifeline” of
education, healthcare and social welfare that
UNWRA provides.
Attacks are based on the foolish and wrong idea that by closing
UNRWA they will erase 5.8 million Palestine
refugees – UN official
“These attacks aim at harming the reputation of the
Agency...[and] are based on the foolish and wrong idea that by
closing UNRWA they will erase 5.8 million Palestine refugees”, he
said.
“Let me reassure you that your rights, including your right of
return and compensation, are enshrined in international law and
UN resolutions and have nothing to do with the UNRWA
mandate”.
The agency chief acknowledged that for close to a
decade, stagnating donor funding remained below the amount
needed to provide quality services.
At the same time as the refugee population has
continued to grow, poverty and vulnerabilities have
skyrocketed.
To promote long-term funding security,
Mr. Lazzarini said that the agency planned to
expand its donor base, increase
digital fundraising and look into innovative
funding mechanisms to ensure that Palestine refugees
have continued access to all services.
