UNRWA says it lacks funds to pay full Palestinian salaries

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, hammered by US cuts, says it lacks the funds to pay full November salaries but is confident President-elect Joe Biden’s administration will restore support.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) “never recovered” from the total funding cut imposed by US President Donald Trump in 2018, agency spokeswoman Tamara Alrifai tells AFP.

Before Trump’s cuts the US had been providing UNRWA $300 million a year, roughly a third of its core annual budget.

Alrifai says 2019 shortfalls were filled by additional support from several Arab states, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait.

Both the European Union and individual European states, notably Germany, also helped close the gap, she says.

This year, “financial support waned,” Alrifai addes, noting that the coronavirus pandemic “didn’t help,” as key donors faced increased domestic financial pressures.

“The agency needs to raise US$70 million by the end of the month if it is to pay full salaries for the months of November and December,” an UNRWA statement says.

The funding shortfall affects 28,000 staffers, spread across Jordan, Lebanon, the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza.

Only those whose work is covered by special emergency budgets could be spared, Alrifai says.

— AFP