UN: Plight of Palestinian refugees in Syria critical

Agency head says ongoing fighting has kept aid deliveries from reaching the Yarmouk camp for over two months

By AP 1 June 2015, 11:54 pm

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A general view showing the destruction in the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp in the Syrian capital of Damascus, April 6, 2015. (AFP/STR)

UNITED NATIONS — The head of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees says the situation for thousands of refugees in the Yarmouk camp on the outskirts of the Syrian capital is “absolutely critical,” with no aid deliveries since March 28 because of fighting.

Pierre Krahenbuhl said Monday the situation in Yarmouk reflects “the catastrophic cost” of the Syrian conflict for Syrians as well as Palestinian refugees.

He said that before the Syrian war began in 2011 there were 160,000 Palestinians in Yarmouk, many who held jobs. Before the Islamic State extremist group entered the camp in early April there were 18,000 refugees, but “it’s very clear several thousand have fled since then.”

Krahenbuhl said his agency, UNRWA, has been able to provide assistance since mid-April to refugees who fled to surrounding government-held areas.

Yarmouk was the main camp established in Syria for Palestinians who fled the 1948 war around Israel’s creation. Before the Syrian civil war, it was a sprawling, built-up neighborhood that was home to tens of thousands of Palestinians and Syrians. Only 10 percent of the camp’s inhabitants remain.

Once the Syrian conflict began in March 2011, some Palestinian factions based in the camp sided with Sunni rebels fighting to topple the government, prompting the military to impose a suffocating blockade.