REGISTRATION AND ELIGIBILITY

Since May 1950, UNRWA has maintained a registration record of Palestine refugees which was initially based on the earlier registration by the International Committee of the Red Cross. UNRWA defines a Palestine refugee as any person whose normal place of residence was Palestine during the period 1 June 1946 to 15 May 1948 and who lost both home and livelihood as a result of the 1948 conflict. When the initial registration process closed at the end of June 1952, nearly three-quarters of a million persons had been registered. UNRWA has since then been updating these records from voluntary information supplied by the refugees to include the whereabouts and births, deaths and marriages of the original refugees and their descendants. This has brought the number of registered refugees to more than four million by December 2002. In addition, a socio-economic data-base has been developed to provide details on individuals and families enrolled in the special hardship programme in order to assess their eligibility for material and financial aid and to include them in UNRWA's more developmental programmes.