Palestinian refugee Majida Salim Abu Surur, displaced from Syria’s Rif Dimashq province, has appealed to the international human rights institutions to help her pay treatment fees for a cardiac surgery she underwent at AlSahel Clinic in Lebanon.

Activists said the operation costs 4,730,000 Lebanese pounds. UNRWA paid 2 million pounds.

According to information collected by UNRWA, more than 80 per cent of Palestinian refugees from Syria (PRS) indicate that the Agency’s cash assistance is their main source of income. 95 per cent of PRS are food insecure, while about 89 per cent of PRS live in poverty. 36 to 57 per cent of PRS youth face unemployment. In August and September 2019, UNRWA conducted a verification exercise of PRS in Lebanon and verified the physical presence of 27,803 PRS in the country.

The number of PRS in Lebanon has been gradually decreasing over the past two years, and UNRWA estimates that in 2020 the country will continue to host approximately 27,700 PRS (8,450 families). UNRWA said PRS’s vulnerability is further compounded by their precarious legal status. According to the Agency’s monitoring data, around 55 percent of PRS do not possess valid legal residency documents.

The lack of a valid legal status, often coupled with outdated civil registration documents, results in severely restricted freedom of movement for some PRS in Lebanon due to fear of arrest, detention and being issued a departure order.