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UN / PALESTINIANS IN SYRIA
STORY: UN / PALESTINIANS IN SYRIA
TRT: 2.59
SOURCE: UNTV
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 11 MARCH 2013, NEW YORK
FILE – 2011, UNITED NATIONS HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK
1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations Headquarters
11 MARCH 2013, NEW YORK
2. Wide shot, press conference
3. Cutaway, journalists
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Filippo Grandi, Commissioner General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA):
“We estimate that about four hundred thousand over a total of half a muillion people, Palesitnian refuges are in need today of aditional special humanitarian assistance. We also estimate that of this population in the country, about half is displaced away from their habitual places of residence. These are estimates, please understand that its very difficult to have a precise assessment of the situation under the circumstance but this is based on our observation of the situation on the ground.”
5. Cutaway, journalists
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Filippo Grandi, Commissioner General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA):
“Because of that fact that UNRWA had to withdraw from the services, it was simply impossible to operate in the area. Out of the 150 thousand Palestinians living normally in Jarmuk, 130 thousand have been displaced in the country, so only 20 thousand remain almost trapped into the area amidst the fighting between the government and the opposition forces.”
7. Cutaway, journalists
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Filippo Grandi, Commissioner General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA):
“It is becoming every day more difficult to reach them. Security is the main obstacle of course and also I hope everybody understands that this is not a very clear cut war -assuming that wars are ever clear cut- the lines of, the dividing lines, the zones of control are extremely fluid and to operate convoys and movements of staff and people and goods through this shifting lines is extremely complicated and dangerous.”
9. Cutaway, press conference
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Filippo Grandi, Commissioner General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA):
“So the really only way pen for the Palestinian refugees who want to escape out of Syria, because of security or other concerns has been Lebanon, a country where life for Palestinian refugees is already very difficult but where 32 thousand have now fled from Syria in addition to those who of course normally living in Lebanon. So in a way there is a situation of entrapment for the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon which of great concern.”
11. Cutaway, journalists
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Filippo Grandi, Commissioner General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA):
“I’m often asked the question, are the Palestinians siding with one side or the other. Small groups are definitively. We are aware of groups that have been taking sides. But the majority of the population, this continues to be our assessment, simply want to be left out of the conflict.”
13. Cutaway, journalist
14. Wide shot, press conference ends
Amid rising deaths among the Palestinian refugee population in Syria and funding shortfalls for humanitarian assistance in the war-torn country, a senior United Nations official today (11 March) urged international donors to step up their financial support for relief efforts in what he described as “a messy, violent and tragic war for the civilian population.”
While noting that Syria presently had a registered population of about five hundred and thirty thousand Palestinian refugees, Filippo Grandi, the Commissioner General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) told reporters in New York that the agency estimated that about “four hundred thousand” Palestinian refugees were in need of additional special humanitarian assistance.
Grandi also said that about half of that population was displaced away from their habitual place of residence.
The largest concentration of Palestinian refugees in Syria is an area called Jarmuk, south of the center of Damascus. Because of the intense fighting in that area since last December, and logistical issues, UNRWA had to withdraw, Grandi said, adding that out of the 150,000 Palestinians normally in Jarmuk, “130,000 have been displaced in the country, so only 20,000 remain almost trapped into the area amidst the fighting between the government and the opposition forces.”
As the fighting in Syria continues to escalate, the Palestinian refugee population there has come under increasing threat.
Grandi stressed that it was becoming more difficult every day to reach them and he cited security as the main obstacle.
According to statistics released by UNRWA earlier this year, most of the Palestinian refugees in Syria now rely on the Agency as their sole means of support. Several UNRWA schools in the country are currently acting as a last place of refuge for 9,000 people, while tens of thousands languish under harsh conditions in neighbouring countries. Moreover, some 20,000 people have fled to the over-crowded refugee camps of Lebanon.
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