Palestinian refugees in Lebanon protest against UN aid cuts
Xinhua, January 14, 2016 Adjust font size:
Protests against the UN aid cuts escalated on Wednesday in the south Lebanon Palestinian Refugee camps, the National News Agency (NNA) reported.
The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) began halting monthly payments for housing subsidies in July 2015 and cutting down its monthly food stipend of 27 U.S. dollars per person due to a massive budget shortfall.
Funding shortages also put schools at risk in early September and has forced new rules concerning funding of health care.
Palestinian refugees in Lebanon have been protesting against aid cuts for months.
On Tuesday, a 23-year-old man was self-immolated outside a clinic in protest of the cuts in the southern Burj al-Shemali camp in Tyre, which led the refugees in the Ain al-Hilweh camp in the southern city of Sidon to close schools and medical clinics.
Matthias Schmale, UNRWA's director-general in Lebanon, has left the country to meet with the agency's commissioner-general to discuss the situation.
The re-establishment of dialogue between the refugees and the UNRWA depends on the commissioner-ceneral's response.
Other Palestinian camps in Tyre and Baalbek and Sidon have closed UNRWA clinics and offices in protest of the cuts, the NNA reported. Endit