UN requests more funds for Palestinian refugees

Official warns of ‘grave implications’ if agency overseeing refugee camps doesn’t patch $100 million shortfall

By AFP 23 July 2015, 9:08 pm

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A Palestinian woman holds her baby in an UNRWA center in the Rafah refugee camp, in southern Gaza Strip on August 13, 2014. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90)

UNITED NATIONS, United States — The United Nations issued an urgent appeal Thursday for contributions to the UN relief agency for Palestinian refugees, saying it faces an unprecedented financial crisis.

The special coordinator for the Palestinian peace process, Nicholay Mladenov, warned the UN Security Council that the agency, known as UNRWA, has a $100 million shortfall that needs to be closed in the coming weeks.

Otherwise, he said, “there is a serious risk that UNRWA schools, which educate 500,000 children throughout the Middle East, will not open.”

“This will have grave implications for Palestine refugee children in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, and for the stability and security of a region already in turmoil,” he said.

“I am deeply concerned about UNRWA’s current unprecedented financial crisis,” he said.

Mladenov also urged donor nations to increase their support for the Palestinian Authority, which is running a $500 million deficit this year — a gap that he said could not be covered with fiscal measures alone.