UNRWA seeks $1.6 billion donation for Palestinian refugees
Lazzarini urges the international community to donate money to the threatened-to-collapse organization, UNRWA.
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UNRWA could collapse due to a lack of funds.
On Tuesday, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said the UN will be needing $1.6 billion from the international community to support Palestinian refugees in 2022.
The statement said that the funding will provide millions of Palestinian refugees with education, health, and food assistance, which are life-saving services and programs, and the money will also go to solving humanitarian issues related to events in Gaza, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Syria, and Lebanon.
Philippe Lazzarini, an UNRWA Commissioner-General, requested that the international community give the necessary funding to aid Palestinian refugees. "Chronic Agency budget shortfalls threaten the livelihoods and well-being of the Palestine refugees that UNRWA serves and pose a serious threat to the Agency’s ability to maintain services," he said.
In 2021, UNRWA supported 1.7 million refugees, which is indicative of UNRWA's need for funds.
"A fully-funded 2022 budget will assist the Agency in its efforts to break the cycle of despair among Palestine refugees through microfinance loans worth US$ 31.2 million; vital structural improvements to refugee camps to create safer and healthier living environments; and cash and food assistance to the millions of refugees impacted by the ongoing humanitarian crises in the region," UNRWA said.
UNRWA on the brink of collapse
Last month, Lazzarini revealed that the agency "can no longer increase the number of refugees that it supports."
In an open letter to Palestinian refugees, Lazzarini said a long-term lack of funding for the Agency represents an “existential” threat.
The Commissioner-General emphasized that "chronic and drastic funding shortfalls could even precipitate" the collapse of UNRWA.
The agency's top official revealed that "austerity has reached its limit" and is affecting the quality of the agency's services.
Lazzarini expressed that UNRWA "can no longer increase the number of refugees that it supports."
"Austerity reaches its limit when we put 50 children in a classroom or leave the most deprived children without transportation or stationary...when a doctor can only spend three minutes with a patient...[and] when many teachers and sanitation laborers are daily paid workers," the letter read.
Lazzarini also recalled his meetings with struggling Palestinian refugees in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan, who are threatened by a daily fear of displacement and financial instability, especially under COVID-19.
Over five million Palestinians are registered as refugees with UNRWA.
