UN agency says it needs $800 a year to help Palestine refugees

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) will seek US$800 per year at the upcoming donor conference in Brussels to help the Palestinians.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said that after years of financial instability during the administration of former US President Donald Trump, it will seek new funding at the upcoming donor conference.

UNRWA Commissioner-General Philip Lazarini told reporters at the United Nations headquarters in New York that the operation of the organization requires “predictability” in order to implement “three core activities”-education, health and social services.

The Palestine Refugee Agency will seek US$800 per year at a donor conference scheduled to be held in Brussels next month.

The funding will enable the United Nations agency to open approximately 700 schools, provide services for 550,000 children, and provide social welfare for Palestine refugees and their descendants.

Lazarini said that an additional amount is needed, estimated to be approximately US$500,000 in 2022, to cover the humanitarian assistance provided by UNRWA.

The agency has provided aid to more than 5 million Palestinians in the Palestinian territories, Jordan and Lebanon, with a funding shortfall of US$100 million this year, and warned that it may have to close some activities in November and December.

“Today we continue to struggle, chasing cash,” Lazarini said. “As a commissioner, I never know if I will be able to pay the salary of 28,000 employees in the coming weeks.”

Washington stopped almost all aid to UNRWA under Trump’s leadership in 2018, and Trump rejected the idea of ​​Palestinians becoming refugees.

The United States has been the agency’s largest single donor, contributing 30% (nearly $365 million) of UNRWA’s annual budget.

The organization was hit hard by years of budget cuts, but managed to keep it as it is.

The current US President Joe Biden has promised to resume aid to the Palestinians and re-establish the goal of negotiating the two countries to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.