The Daily Star - Displaced families from areas adjacent to Nahr al-Bared still - February 22, 2011in limbo

Interview

TRIPOLI: More than 100 Palestinian families displaced from the area surrounding Nahr al-Bared refugee camp have been left in limbo by the government’s delay in honoring its commitment to reconstruct their homes, The Daily Star can reveal.

The U.N. head of Nahr al-Bared reconstruction told The Daily Star Monday that the organization is continuing to provide temporary accommodation for families who abandoned the camp’s adjacent area following the outbreak of fighting in May 2007, even though the state agreed to rebuild their homes three years ago.

U.N. Relief and Works Agency’s  northern project manager Charles Higgins said that those displaced from the camp’s adjacent area were stuck waiting for reconstruction money pledged in 2008.

“A lot of people are waiting for something to come which doesn’t show much sign of coming,” he said. “The expectation at the [Vienna Donors Conference of 2008], when UNRWA was tasked with reconstructing the Old Camp, was that the government [would take] responsibility [for rebuilding adjacent areas]. The government acknowledged this in the original document.”

More than 400 people, including 54 civilians, were killed in four months of fighting between the Lebanese Army and Fatah al-Islam, which destroyed Nahr al-Bared’s “Old Camp” and ruined surrounding areas. Tens of thousands of refugees were left homeless and hundreds of families are still living in temporary accommodation.

Monday saw the delivery of the first donation – five million euros – from Italy to aid reconstruction in the camp. While Higgins welcomed the Italian contribution, he voiced disquiet over the speed of aid getting through to families awaiting reconstruction.

“For money pledged in 2007, its first disbursement to occur today is not exactly fast,” he said.

Although UNRWA is not required to provide for those from the camp’s adjacent area, Higgins said it was “humanely impossible” to ignore their needs.

“It is clear where our responsibility as UNRWA goes and where it doesn’t; it ends at the boundary of the Old Camp. Our concern is that of the people we are accommodating in temporary plots, a substantial minority are not from the Old Camp but from the adjacent area, who will remain on these forms of assistance until their homes are reconstructed,” he said.

“We are concerned from two sides: How to continue to raise the resources to support these people outside their homes, but also on a humanitarian side,” he said. “While eventually we will be delivering a whole camp for the people inside [the Old Camp], is there an equivalent that will give their homes back on the outside?

“It is our problem because the Palestinians see UNRWA as a guardian of their rights and UNRWA itself feels a responsibility to the Palestinians who are here. But the solution to it is not in our hands and the need to go out and raise money for [reconstruction] is not in our hands. We certainly don’t have any right to do that,” he added.

The vast majority of the more than 100 buildings damaged or destroyed in the adjacent area are owned by Palestinians, but the Lebanese state doesn’t officially recognize deals which transferred ownership from native landowners. “They bought them through ways that weren’t fully legitimized by the state. It is not registered by the land registry,” Higgins said. “Original land registries would see the original Lebanese owners as the owners of the plots.”

Lebanese victims of Nahr al-Bared are entitled to far more reconstructive aid than Palestinians who suffered equivalent property damage. But Higgins said the government, even though it considers the land to be owned by Lebanese residents, was dragging its heels in delivering on its side of the Vienna bargain.

“It’s complicated because [plots] are owned by Palestinians, but not in a way recognized by the state,” he said. “This is personal, but I don’t see why it’s so hard to treat a house in the [adjacent] area the same as a house [in the Old Camp].”

Higgins warned that the current situation, in which UNRWA deals with Old Camp reconstruction and adjacent area rent subsidies, was unsustainable.

“It is humanely impossible to accept [the situation],” he said. “It should not continue and I cannot imagine that the funding required to sustain this temporary situation will continue for a couple more years. The world will move on and this is a huge worry.”