Palestinian refugees in Lebanon faces major challenges since a period starting from the crisis of former Labor Minister Camille Abu Suleiman during the months of August and September, and then the popular movement on October 17 in Lebanon, where most of the works were stopped due to the cutting of roads and the resignation of the government later, and recently the Corona pandemic in which the current Lebanese government announced general mobilization and the closure of most official, industrial, agricultural and financial institutions.
In front of these heavy challenges, nearly 90% of the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon are without work, and because of the accelerating events and the escalating numbers of cases of the Corona pandemic, the Palestinian Association for Human Rights (witness) puts a number of demands:
First: The necessity of practical coordination between UNRWA and civil society institutions concerned with the health aspect, especially with regard to activating the Home Isolation Center in Siblin, which has become operational.
Second: The necessity of working to secure isolation places in every governorate in Lebanon where Palestinian refugees live.
Third: call UNRWA's to cancel the decision to limit work in the clinics for emergency cases only, and to find practical and preventive alternatives in which clinics operate normally. This procedure increase the suffering of the refugees and forced them to go to the private clinics and pharmacies for medical examinations and to purchase the medicines they need in light of the loss of job opportunities and the high rate of unemployment. Also, many workers work on a daily basis, and therefore this procedure has caused to lose a job opportunity for many of them.
Knowing that this procedure caused a great disruption in terms of the refusal of the staff attending the clinics to receive patients under the heading of emergency, and they do not distinguish between emergency and non-emergency cases.
In this context, the Palestinian Association for Human Rights (witness) is launching an urgent appeal through which calls UNRWA to redouble its health and relief efforts and to conduct field awareness campaigns among refugees and work to raise the number of health personnel instead of reducing numbers in this domain.
Fourth: (witness) demands the UNRWA relief program to provide cash amounts to Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, regularly and periodically.
Fifth: (Witness) calls on UNRWA, the PLO and the Palestinian factions to unite efforts to deliver relief aid to all Palestinian refugees.
4/4/20220
Palestinian Association for Human Rights (witness)