Three Gaza men arrived at Royal Star Tourism office in Gaza City to learn more about getting a visa to any European county, saying they decided to emigrate from Gaza to find a better life after losing their hope that the situation in Gaza would improve.

Ra'ed Hammad, director of Royal Star, who received the three men at his fancy office in a building in the city's downtown, said the number of people coming to his office asking for visas to Europe or other foreign countries had incredibly increased during the last two years.

Hammad was very busy receiving his customers, talking to them and at the same time making coordination phone calls with tourists agent to arrange for what his customers were asking for.

Two years ago, Israel imposed a tight blockade on the poor and impoverished enclave of the Gaza Strip, closed all its border crossings right after Islamic Hamas movement seized control of the territory and routed western-backed President Mahmoud Abbas security forces on June 14, 2007.

A recent survey conducted by the Palestinian Center for Political Research and Surveys based in the West Bank city of Ramallah, said that 37 percent of the Gaza Strip population want to emigrate abroad, due to the difficult political and economical situation in the territory.

"Before the siege was imposed on Gaza, I used to receive 50 customers everyday, who asked for tourist visas to spend their vacations for two or three weeks abroad and then came back. Now I receive 150 people everyday, most of them want to leave Gaza for good," said Hammad.

Omer Sha'ban, a Gaza-based economist told Xinhua in an interview that the Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip "had killed all aspects of daily life, led to the collapse of the economy and made people more desperate after loosing their jobs."

"Unemployment rate has reached 60 percent after Israel imposed the siege on the Gaza Strip and closed all its crossings," said Sha'ban.

Over the past two years, Israel has been partially reopening Gaza border crossings, only to allow humanitarian aids, cooking gas, fuels, medicines and several kinds of basic food products. Israel frequently closed down the crossings completely for several days when homemade rockets were fired from Gaza.

Hammad said that not only single jobless youths aged between 20 and 30 years old came to his office or other tourism offices in Gaza to ask for visas to leave Gaza, "there are also older fathers who became unemployed and wanted to find a better life in another country."

"We get the visa for our customers, but we cannot guarantee their travel due to the closure of Rafah border crossing between Gaza Strip and Egypt." said Hammad.

Asked about how much would obtaining a visa to Europe or other countries cost, Hammad said: "it depends, a visa to a member country of European Union would cost 5000 US dollars, a visa to Russia would cost 500 dollars, while to Malaysia would cost 400 dollars."

Mohamed Drimly, a 35-year-old Gaza resident who has four children and will have his fifth in a few days, said he decided to travel to Sweden to look for a job after he became unemployed two years ago.

Drimly, who used to work at a factory in Gaza that produces sponge beds mattresses, said he had a brother who lived in Sweden, adding that the visa to Sweden cost him US$5000.

"Last year, I got a visa to Sweden, but I could not leave Gaza because Egypt didn't open the Rafah border crossing and it expired. I want to apply again and wait for the crossing reopened one day," said Drimly.

He said at first he would leave by himself, "and when I find a job in Sweden, I will bring my wife and children there."

"If the situation in Gaza gets better and all crossings reopen, I will cancel my trip, stay in Gaza and go back to my old job," Drimly said.

(Xinhua News Agency June 24, 2009)