UNRWA Calls for $15.5 Million for Aftermath of Clashes in Lebanon's Ain el-Hilweh

FILE - Charred remains of dozens of cars, burnt during the deadly clashes between Palestinian factions, are seen in the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain el-Hilweh near the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, Thursday, Aug. 3, 2023. (AP Photo/Mohammad Zaatari, File)
FILE - Charred remains of dozens of cars, burnt during the deadly clashes between Palestinian factions, are seen in the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain el-Hilweh near the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, Thursday, Aug. 3, 2023. (AP Photo/Mohammad Zaatari, File)
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UNRWA Calls for $15.5 Million for Aftermath of Clashes in Lebanon's Ain el-Hilweh

FILE - Charred remains of dozens of cars, burnt during the deadly clashes between Palestinian factions, are seen in the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain el-Hilweh near the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, Thursday, Aug. 3, 2023. (AP Photo/Mohammad Zaatari, File)
FILE - Charred remains of dozens of cars, burnt during the deadly clashes between Palestinian factions, are seen in the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain el-Hilweh near the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, Thursday, Aug. 3, 2023. (AP Photo/Mohammad Zaatari, File)

The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees appealed Wednesday for $15.5 million to respond to the fallout of clashes in Lebanon's largest Palestinian refugee camp earlier this month.

The agency, known as UNRWA, said the money is needed to repair infrastructure damaged in the clashes in the Ain el-Hilweh camp, provide alternate schooling locations for children who will now be unable to use the schools in the camp, and hand cash assistance to people who have been displaced from their homes.

Several days of street battles broke out in the camp between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah movement and Islamist groups in the camp after Fatah accused the Islamists of gunning down one of their military generals on July 30.

While an uneasy truce has prevailed since Aug. 3, clashes could resume if the Islamist groups do not hand over the accused killers of the Fatah general, Mohammad “Abu Ashraf” al-Armoushi to the Lebanese judiciary as demanded by a committee of Palestinian factions earlier this month.

The bulk of the funds requested by UNRWA, about $11 million, would go to provide one-time $1,200 cash aid payments to families whose homes have “become uninhabitable due to the conflict,” the agency said in its appeal, as well as smaller aid payments to other vulnerable families in the camp.

Another $1.65 million would go to setting up a “double shift system” at schools outside of the camp to accommodate about 5,900 students, as the schools inside the camp were damaged in the clashes and “remain occupied by armed actors and inaccessible to UNRWA,” the appeal said.

The requested amount does not include the cost of reconstruction, The Associated Press said.

There are nearly 500,000 Palestinian refugees registered in Lebanon, although the actual number is believed to be around 200,000, as many have emigrated but remain on UNRWA’s roster.



Cyprus Says Syria Will Take Back Citizens Trying to Reach the Mediterranean Island by Boat

Migrants stand behind a fence inside a refugee camp in Kokkinotrimithia outside of capital Nicosia, Cyprus, on Friday, Feb. 5, 2021. (AP)
Migrants stand behind a fence inside a refugee camp in Kokkinotrimithia outside of capital Nicosia, Cyprus, on Friday, Feb. 5, 2021. (AP)
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Cyprus Says Syria Will Take Back Citizens Trying to Reach the Mediterranean Island by Boat

Migrants stand behind a fence inside a refugee camp in Kokkinotrimithia outside of capital Nicosia, Cyprus, on Friday, Feb. 5, 2021. (AP)
Migrants stand behind a fence inside a refugee camp in Kokkinotrimithia outside of capital Nicosia, Cyprus, on Friday, Feb. 5, 2021. (AP)

Syria has agreed to take back any of its citizens intercepted trying to reach Cyprus by boat, the Mediterranean island nation's deputy minister for migration said Monday.

Nicholas Ioannides says two inflatable boats, each carrying 30 Syrians, were already turned back in recent days in line with a bilateral search and rescue agreement that Cyprus and Syria now have in place.

Officials didn't share further details about the agreement.

Cypriot navy and police patrol boats intercepted the two vessels on May 9th and 10th after they put out a call for help. They were outside Cypriot territorial waters but within the island's search and rescue area of responsibility, a government statement said. They were subsequently escorted back to a port in the Syrian city of Tartus.

Ioannides told private TV station Antenna there’s been an uptick of boatloads of migrants trying to reach Cyprus from Syria, unlike in recent years when vessels would primarily depart from Lebanon. Cyprus and Lebanon have a long-standing agreement to send back migrants.

He said Cypriot authorities and their Syrian counterparts are trying to fight back against human traffickers who are supplying an underground market for laborers.

According to Ioannides, traffickers apparently cut deals with local employers to bring in Syrian laborers who pick up work right away, despite laws that prevent asylum-seekers from working before the completion of a nine-month residency period.

“The message we’re sending is that the Cyprus Republic won’t tolerate the abuse of the asylum system from people who aren’t eligible for either asylum or international protection and just come here only to work,” Ioannides said.

The bilateral agreement is compounded by the Cypriot government’s decision last week not to automatically grant asylum to Syrian migrants, but to examine their applications individually on merit and according to international and European laws.

From a total of 19,000 pending asylum applications, 13,000 have been filed by Syrian nationals, according to figures quoted by Ioannides.

Since Assad was toppled in December last year and a new transitional government took power, some 2,300 Syrians have either dropped their asylum claims or rescinded their international protection status, while 2,100 have already departed Cyprus for Syria.

Both the United Nations refugee agency and Europe’s top human rights body have urged the Cyprus government to stop pushing back migrants trying to reach the island by boat. Cyprus strongly denies it’s committing any pushbacks according to its definition.