The Daily Star Lebanon - Palestinian officials highlight camp conditions, April 03, 2012

BEIRUT: Palestinian officials planted trees in Burj al-Barajneh camp and led a tour for European donors Monday as they tried to raise awareness about the deteriorating living conditions inside the camp.

Danish Ambassador Jan Top Christensen, along with European Union and United Nations Relief and Works Agency officials, was led on a tour of the Palestinian camp by officials from the Palestinian Embassy in Lebanon.

The European officials navigated though camp’s network of narrow alleyways escorted by a guard of Fatah fighters – carrying automatic weapons – and visited a hospital as well families living in deteriorating houses.

Many locals voiced displeasure over difficulties in getting construction supplies into the camp because of strict regulations by the Internal Security Forces.

“It goes back to the treatment of Palestinians in Lebanon” said Baha Hassoun, a camp services worker for UNRWA. “This is a push to displace people outside the camp and outside Lebanon” he said.

The tour was Christensen’s fifth visit to the Burj al-Barajneh; he said he realizes just how bad conditions are.

“It’s obvious that a lot more has to be done,” Christensen said.

He said an aid package from the EU to improve camp buildings is in the process of being approved.

“This [aid] has to be continued over a long period of time,” he said.

At the beginning of the tour local officials also held a tree planting ceremony at an entrance of the camp.

Construction workers had to use a jack hammer to chip through the thick concrete layer that covers almost the entirety of the sprawling camp in the Beirut suburbs so they could reach the dirt below to plant around 15 new trees.

Around 16,000 people live in the packed camp according to UNRWA, and open spaces are rare.

By Stephen Dockery

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