The Lebanese Center for Human Rights (CLDH) is a local non-profit, non-partisan Lebanese human rights organization in Beirut that was established by the Franco-Lebanese Movement SOLIDA (Support for Lebanese Detained Arbitrarily) in 2006. SOLIDA has been active since 1996 in the struggle against arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance and the impunity of those perpetrating gross human violations.

Search This Blog

February 19, 2016

The Daily Star - Palestinians in Lebanon press UNRWA demands to EU, February 19, 2016


Palestinians Friday took their demands for a U.N. aid agency to reverse cuts in medical services to the European Union embassy in Beirut.

The protest, attended by Palestinians from camps across Lebanon, was accompanied by heavy security deployment, the state-run National News Agency reported.

Demonstrators lifted banners criticizing the cuts made by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency as "smothering the Palestinians."

A delegation from the emergency committee formed by Palestinian factions to follow up on the matter later entered to the embassy's headquarters and gave EU envoy Christina Lassen a list of their demands, asking the EU to press UNRWA to back down on its decision.

Around 400,000 Palestinians live in refugee camps across Lebanon, with an estimated 65 percent believed to be living below the poverty line. Palestinians, whose livelihoods are said to have been dramatically affected by the cuts, have warned of civil disobedience in all 12 camps if UNRWA fails to back down.

UNRWA had decided to halt monthly payments for housing subsidies in July 2015 and cut down on its monthly food stipend of $27 per person. Another slash in the budget came into effect in the New Year, which cut healthcare subsidies.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Archives