TRIPOLI, Lebanon: Officials and residents at the north Lebanon Palestinian refugee camp Nahr al-Bared protested Tuesday over the United Nations cutting funds to an emergency aid program.
The camp’s officials and a crowd of refugees staged the sit-in outside the U.N. Relief and Works Agency in Nahr al-Bared.
Abu Louai of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine criticized the director of the UNRWA in Lebanon, Ann Dismorr, for cutting the emergency program.
“The general director of UNRWA chose the shortest way to address the deficit in the [UNRWA] budget... and did not seek the help of donor countries to provide the money needed to fund the emergency plan or the money needed to complete the reconstruction of [Nahr al-Bared] camp,” he said.
UNRWA officials were not available for comment Tuesday afternoon.
Similar protests were staged by Palestinian refugees in recent months.
UNRWA has seen an extreme funding shortage recently due to underfunding and increased aid demand because of the Syrian conflict.
The emergency program provides funds for housing, health care and other services to Palestinians.
It was created in the summer of 2007, following the destruction of Nahr el-Bared Camp in the conflict between the Lebanese Armed Forces and the extremist Fatah Al-Islam group.
The program was part of a plan for the reconstruction of the camp.
In September 2011, the first set of new houses and schools were completed in the camp and 369 families, around 1,200 people, moved into new homes.
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27/08/2013
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