Published : 05-06-2021
After more than ten years of conflict, Palestinian refugees who remained in Syria or who fled the war-torn country to Lebanon, Jordan, Gaza, Turkey, Egypt, and Thailand, among other destinations are identified as the world’s most vulnerable groups.
The outburst of the bloody hostilities in Syria led to the displacement of thousands of Palestinian refugees in countries that fall outside of UNRWA’s fields of operations, exacerbating even further their humanitarian and legal condition.
Nearly 10,000 PRS fled to Turkey and 3,500 to Egypt, where they have been facing a precarious legal status and denied access to vital services.
At the same time, AGPS continues to sound alarm bells over the deteriorating humanitarian condition endured by dozens of Palestinian refugees who fled war-torn Syria to the Kingdom of Thailand. The refugees risk to be forcibly sent back to Syria or tossed into Thai detention centers for indefinite periods of time.
Sometime earlier, the refugees urged Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to pressurize the Thai authorities so as to release refugees trapped at IDC detention center and grant them legal and physical protection.
The Thai authorities continue to rebuff their appeals for visa-renewal after they overstayed their residence permits. The Thai government also prohibits renting homes to the refugees, who have been considered as lawbreakers rather than asylum-seekers.
Thus, UNRWA and UNHCR should join efforts in order to provide PRS with the legal, physical, and moral protection they quite urgently need at such a critical time and in such tension-stricken zones, where thousands, have been pronounced dead, arrested, injured, and/or displaced.
Serious efforts should be made by the UN agencies in order to assist registered PRS in hard-to-reach zones, particularly northern Syria. PRS in Lebanon and Jordan are also in need of urgent humanitarian assistance.
UNRWA should also cooperate with UNHCR offices outside of its fields of operations in order to push for permanent humanitarian assistance of PRS.
After more than ten years of conflict, Palestinian refugees who remained in Syria or who fled the war-torn country to Lebanon, Jordan, Gaza, Turkey, Egypt, and Thailand, among other destinations are identified as the world’s most vulnerable groups.
The outburst of the bloody hostilities in Syria led to the displacement of thousands of Palestinian refugees in countries that fall outside of UNRWA’s fields of operations, exacerbating even further their humanitarian and legal condition.
Nearly 10,000 PRS fled to Turkey and 3,500 to Egypt, where they have been facing a precarious legal status and denied access to vital services.
At the same time, AGPS continues to sound alarm bells over the deteriorating humanitarian condition endured by dozens of Palestinian refugees who fled war-torn Syria to the Kingdom of Thailand. The refugees risk to be forcibly sent back to Syria or tossed into Thai detention centers for indefinite periods of time.
Sometime earlier, the refugees urged Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to pressurize the Thai authorities so as to release refugees trapped at IDC detention center and grant them legal and physical protection.
The Thai authorities continue to rebuff their appeals for visa-renewal after they overstayed their residence permits. The Thai government also prohibits renting homes to the refugees, who have been considered as lawbreakers rather than asylum-seekers.
Thus, UNRWA and UNHCR should join efforts in order to provide PRS with the legal, physical, and moral protection they quite urgently need at such a critical time and in such tension-stricken zones, where thousands, have been pronounced dead, arrested, injured, and/or displaced.
Serious efforts should be made by the UN agencies in order to assist registered PRS in hard-to-reach zones, particularly northern Syria. PRS in Lebanon and Jordan are also in need of urgent humanitarian assistance.
UNRWA should also cooperate with UNHCR offices outside of its fields of operations in order to push for permanent humanitarian assistance of PRS.
