Conditions in refugee camps – UNCCP’s Technical Cttee on Refugees – report


UNITED NATIONS CONCILIATION COMMISSION FOR PALESTINE

Report received on 12 July 1949

submitted by the Technical Committee

to the Conciliation Commission

The camps in Jericho were visited on 23 June and, on that date, from a total number of 48,062 refugees who had been registered, 12,700 had just been evacuated — 6,000 to Ramallah, 5,200 to Bethlehem and 1,500 to Nablus. The remaining refugees are either in the village itself where there are some 14,000 of them, or in the camp and the region of Aqba where 21,124 refugees, normally settled, and some 8,000 Bedouins are living under canvas.

General living conditions in the camp, though precarious, appear to be tolerable. The number of tents is, however, insufficient and many which are in a bad state of repair will have to be replaced as winter draws on. In spite of the lack of exact statistics of births and deaths, the situation with regard to the health of the refugees does not seem to be bad except insofar as infants are concerned as their mothers persist in breast-feeding them over too long a period. Living conditions of families have sometimes been improved through men leaving to help in the harvest in Transjordan but this is only a temporary improvement since the refugees are not favourably disposed towards accepting work different from their normal occupations.

The camp authorities are endeavouring to improve the administration of the camp, and to further educational facilities for children and technical instruction, particularly for adolescent children. As yet we have not been able to establish contact with the head of the camp.

Jerusalem

Technical Committee

(s.) H. Kunde

A. Lucas

R. Zorlu

 


2019-03-12T20:06:48-04:00

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