The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine pursued on Friday its campaign against the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), accusing it of reducing its budget for medical and educational assistance to Palestinian refugees in the country.
| The same people they've been supporting for 55 years? |
More than 50 people staged a protest near the offices of the camp’s UNRWA director-general, Richard Cook, raising banners to communicate their suffering and need for medical and educational aid.
In a letter addressed to Cook, the front conveyed the Palestinian refugees’ suffering from deprivation of civil and human rights, unemployment, as well as the decline of UNRWA’s medical, social and educational assistance in the wake of the socio-economic crisis in Lebanon. The front said that refugees suffered from two types of problems, the first resulting from the lack of practical and administrative measures for redefining UNRWA’s administrative policy, in addition to the need for stopping administrative and financial corruption within the UNRWA.
| A UN agency? Corrupt? Good Lord! When did that start? |
The second type consisted of the need to unify work at UNRWA in a bid to pressure the international community to pay its dues to the agency so that the latter could provide the necessary help to the refugees.
| Could it be the International Community™ is getting tired of pissing its taxpayers' money away on a never-ending "refugee" problem that's continually exploited for local (and Byzantine) political purposes? |
According to the front, the UNRWA should increase the number of beds in its hospitals, and cover the full cost of open-heart surgeries and catheterization operations. The front also called for the full coverage of therapies for cancer and chronic diseases, dialysis, MRI, X-rays and scanner procedures, and for the increase of the number of physicians at the Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp.
| Careful where you're stepping. My jaw's down there somewhere... |
Regarding education for refugees, the front denounced the agency’s neglect to improve the educational level and called for its support as soon as possible. The percentage of success in the Brevet examinations, which reached just 32 percent, reflected the deterioration of the educational level, the letter said. The front also imputed the decline of the educational level to the lack of efficient administrative communication within the UNRWA and to the absence of an educational development center for training teachers. The increasing number of students in a classroom, ranging between 50 and 55 pupils, was also cited as a source of concern, since teachers were unable to control and provide the proper care. The front concluded that the refugees’ economic status required careful examination and called for the immediate reconstruction of the sewer system especially since winter was around the corner. |