Arab News

Miseries pile up for West Bank refugees as UNRWA workers’ strike continues

Palestinia­n refugee camps in the West Bank face a summer littered with waste due to an ongoing strike, sparking fears about disease outbreaks. Environmen­tal and health disaster feared as piles of garbage accumulate on streets

- Mohammed Najib Ramallah

Piles of garbage have accumulate­d as more than 3,600 UN Relief and Work Agency workers have been on strike since Feb. 20.

Camp residents, who number about 960,000, continue to complain about their dire living conditions, which has also affected healthcare provision and impacted the education of 50,000 students. UNRWA claims that it does not have enough funds to raise the salaries of its workers and meet their demands.

The lack of garbage collection, combined with the halting of healthcare services, could lead to

an environmen­tal and health disaster with summer approachin­g, locals fear.

Youssef Baraka, from the Jalazoun refugee camp near Ramallah, told Arab News: “The refugee

always pays the bill ... and we live in difficult conditions due to the continuati­on of the strike.

“Our children are without education, and our patients are without treatment.”

He said that individual efforts were being made to help patients with treatment and provide medical supplies, and that residents were trying to rid camps of garbage themselves where possible. Taysir Nasrallah, from the Balata refugee camp in Nablus, in the northern West Bank, told Arab News that Palestinia­n President Mahmoud Abbas had set up a committee to meet with UNRWA Commission­er-General Philippe Lazzarini to find a quick solution to the crisis.

“The UNRWA administra­tion requires urgent interventi­on to resolve the dispute with the staff and restore life to normal in the camps,” he told Arab News. UNRWA was set up in 1949 by the UN General Assembly to assist and protect Palestinia­n refugees in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

Walid Masharqa, from the Jenin camp, said rubbish was piling up and sewage was seeping into the streets, while many basic medicines for chronic diseases are not currently available to residents. “What is the fault of the Palestinia­n refugee, in the existence of wars and other humanitari­an disasters in the world, for UNRWA to spoof its services to the Palestinia­n refugees?” Masharqa asked Arab News.

The Palestinia­n Authority is not allowed to provide services to refugees in the camps, he added.

Adnan Abu Hasna, a spokesman for UNRWA in the Middle East, told Arab News that talks were continuing with the PA and the Palestine Liberation Organizati­on to solve the strike problem.

Abu Hasna expects all parties to reach a solution soon.

He said that UNRWA had approved an allowance of $268 for 300 of its employees in East Jerusalem due to its high prices, and employees in the West Bank were demanding the same.

But he said the UNRWA budget was unable bear the additional cost, as its funds have an annual deficit of $70 million.

Abu Hasna referred to the tremendous Saudi support for UNRWA, as it funded it for over 10 years with $1 billion, built entire cities and neighbourh­oods and dozens of schools in the Gaza Strip, and saved UNRWA several times from collapse.

The UNRWA administra­tion requires urgent interventi­on to resolve the dispute with the staff and restore life to normal in the camps.

 ?? AFP ?? A Palestinia­n man inspects a car, reportedly burnt by Israeli settlers on Friday, in the village of Al-Mughayer, east of the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah.
AFP A Palestinia­n man inspects a car, reportedly burnt by Israeli settlers on Friday, in the village of Al-Mughayer, east of the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah.

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