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Palestinians: Refugees

Answer

Iraq is outside of the areas of operation of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) so assistance and protection to Palestinian refugees who are in Iraq is the responsibility of the Government of Iraq supported by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR). Official up to date figures on the number of Palestinian refugees in Iraq do not exist. As at 31 August 2017, there were some 40,200 non-Syrian refugees and asylum-seekers registered with UNHCR in Iraq, some of which will be Palestinian. DFID and the wider international community assist and protect the most vulnerable in Iraq and many of ours and other donor’s programmes may be assisting Palestinian refugees. For example, since 2014 DFID has provided £34 million to UNHCR in Iraq to provide cash assistance for over 110,000 vulnerable displaced persons in Iraq. Additionally, the UK is providing UNHCR with £35 million per year in core funding, from 2017/18- 2020/21.

UNRWA estimates that around 438,000 Palestinian refugees remain in Syria as of August 2017. UNRWA is the only organisation mandated to provide protection and assistance for Palestinian Refugees in Syria (PRS) and receives significant international voluntary contributions for their work across the region, mostly from government donors. DFID will provide £36 million from 2017 – 2020 to UNRWA’s Syria Emergency Appeal to support 418,000 PRS with cash and in-kind food assistance, including 254,000 internally displaced PRS with non-food items such as blankets, mattresses and hygiene kits, alongside health, livelihood support, education and protection assistance each year.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

HL4271

Session

2017-19

Subjects

International assistance Iraq Refugees Palestine Syria

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.parliament.uk