Sixty percent of Palestinian refugees in Jordan camps live below the poverty line

A human rights committee for Palestinian refugees’ affairs in Jordan has claimed that 60 percent of Palestinians in refugee camps across the country live below the poverty line due to a reduction in the level of health, education and social services provided by the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).

The High Committee for the Defence of the Palestinian Right of Return and a delegation of representatives of Palestinian refugees in Jordan presented an official memorandum to the Commissioner General of UNRWA. Filippo Grandi was informed that in addition to the 60 percent of refugees living below the poverty line, about 45 percent are unemployed and 75 percent do not possess any properties in their places of refuge.

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The memorandum pointed to the “severe damage” that the Palestinian refugees face as a result of UNRWA’s reduction in its service levels and role in providing support and assistance to them. It stressed the need for UNRWA to continue its work until the refugees are able to return to the land from which they were expelled in 1948 and 1967 which is now occupied by Israel.

UNRWA has adopted an austerity plan with corresponding reductions in the services provided to refugees due to a massive fiscal deficit in the agency’s budget.