UNRWA stresses that “it is time for the international community to take action to reverse this situation”
June 19 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The United Nations has asked this Monday that Palestinian refugees “do not fall into oblivion” and has highlighted that 17 percent of the refugees in the world are Palestinians, a situation that has lasted for 75 years for nearly six million people. and which is the longest refugee crisis in the world.
The executive director of the United Nations Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Middle East (UNRWA) in Spain, Raquel Martí, has emphasized that “it is essential to remember that the refugee population of Palestine is the one that has been under the condition of of refugees”.
“After 75 years, we cannot let these six million people fall into oblivion. It is time for the international community to take measures to reverse this situation,” Martí said ahead of Tuesday’s commemoration of World People’s Day Refugees.
The refugee crisis stems from the expulsion of more than 700,000 Palestinians from their homes after the 1948 war, unleashed after the creation of the State of Israel, although at present almost six million people receive aid from UNRWA, which It also operates in several countries in the region.
Thus, the organization has affirmed that the absence of a political solution to the conflict that includes the creation of a Palestinian State has only worsened the living conditions of the refugees who live displaced inside and outside of 58 camps in the Gaza Strip, West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.
UNRWA has also pointed to the situation faced by Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, which is going through a very serious political and economic crisis, which is added to the “permanent restriction” of their civil rights that they endure due to their refugee status.
In this sense, it has specified that 93 percent of these people live below the poverty line, while 86 percent depend on UNRWA assistance as their main source of income. In addition, 68 percent of Palestinian refugee families declare that they have reduced the number of meals because of inflation.
The situation “has led them to a level of desperation that has forced them on numerous occasions to put their lives at risk trying to cross the Mediterranean and reach Europe,” according to UNRWA, which has also pointed to problems with anxiety, depression or fear of having to skip meals or take out loans due to lack of resources.
For their part, Palestinian refugees in Syria have been suffering the consequences of the war unleashed in 2011 for twelve years, while the Israeli offensives in Gaza have left thousands of civilians dead, while the blockade suffered by the Palestinian enclave since 2007 “limits any type of movement and economic activity, which is why more than 80 percent of the refugees depend on humanitarian aid.
Finally, Israeli settler harassment and violence against Palestinians in the West Bank is on the rise, as is ongoing illegal demolitions of homes and property. In the first four months of the year, 292 infrastructures have been demolished and 411 people have been displaced, according to data provided by the agency.
