Arab News Japan

TOKYO: Philippe Lazzarini, the Commissioner General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, says the situation of Palestinian refugees is very serious and could become worse.

“I have to say that the situation of the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon is quite desperate,” he told Arab News Japan. “As you know, the country has financially, economically collapsed. It was already difficult for the Palestinian refugees who do not have proper access to the labour market in the country. Since being on the verge of collapse in Lebanon, life in the country has been harder and I have to say when I go to the refugee camp and I meet refugees, they have only one idea in their head: to leave and go somewhere else.  And for that they are willing to take any risk.”

Lazzarini is visiting Japan on 70 years of partnership between Japan and UNRWA. “It is a partnership I am very proud of,” he said. “It is a very long-standing one. It is a very deep expression of the solidarity of Japan toward the Palestinian refugees and UNRWA.”

“Japan is a predictable partner for the organization and in fact started this partnership before Japan became a member of the United Nations. Just after World War II and at a time when the country decided that even though they had to reconstruct their whole country, that they wanted to express solidarity with other people and communities having gone through this kind of war.”  

UNRWA announced that it will be opening a national committee in order to better promote the activities of UNRWA as well as the plight of the Palestinian refugees within the broader public in Japan. Lazzarini pointed out that Japan has increased its contribution to more than $40 million.  

While Lebanon and Jordan are often the focus of Palestinian refugees, Syria also has problems to contend with.

“In Syria you had ten years of civil war, and you had Palestinian refugees who had been displaced for a second time,” Lazzarini said. “You had camps which have also been destroyed. And we have seen since the beginning of the war that about 100,000 Palestinian refugees have left the country and thus remain highly dependent for the time being on the assistance of UNRWA.”

Japan’s contributions to UNRWA are vital after years of political pressure from the United States, who cut donations in 2018 along with several other countries. Lazzarini was relieved when the administration of President Joe Biden resumed contributions.

“It was very important the US come back because they have always been a long-standing partner to the organization,” Lazzarini said. “Having said that, it does not mean that the financial problems of the organization have been solved. So, their contribution has also been offset by the decrease in contributions of several European countries but also some of the Arab countries. And all this is also taking place at a time when the region is being hit by a refugee crisis and the needs of the Palestinian refugees have been increasing. We might not be able to muddle through and keep all our activities if we do not find new resources.”

When asked about the challenges facing the UNRWA, Lazarus pointed at  “two main challenges: The first one is to make sure that we can keep the activities of the agency running until the end of the year. I still do not know if I will be able to cover the salary for 30,000 staff and for several millions of refugees until the end of the year.  So, I have the short-term main challenge to make sure we keep our activities running and for that we need an additional $100 million from now until the end of the year.”  

“The second main objective is how to bring the agency back onto a more sustainable setting. How do we make sure that UNRWA will be a predictable partner for the region who will offer to remediate for the refugees a sense of prospect, a sense of future.”