Human rights data released on the international Human Rights Day, observed every year on 10 December, has indicated that over 4,000 Palestinian refugees from Syria (PRS) have died of war-related incidents.

The Action Group for Palestinians of Syria (AGPS), a human rights group that monitors the situation of Palestinian refugees in the war-torn country, said as many as 4,009 PRS died of causes inflicted, directly or indirectly, by the warfare, including shelling, the blockade, deadly shootouts, torture, and on the migration route.

At the same time, 1,769 PRS have been detained and/or forcibly disappeared in Syrian state-run penal complexes, where 614 others have died under torture, the group added.

It said that PRS have also been denied easy access to neighboring countries, including Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, and North African countries. Besides, most of the Gulf countries have outlawed granting visas to Palestinians with Syrian travel documents since 2013.

At the same time, the human rights monitor warned that Palestinian families in Thailand risk to go forcibly deported as the Thai authorities have tightened grip on refugees who overstayed their visas.

AGPS urged neighboring countries to lift the entry bans slapped against PRS and to abide by international conventions prohibiting the expulsion of civilians fleeing war-stricken zones.

It also called on the international community to take urgent steps in order to push for an immediate end to the human rights violations committed against PRS in host countries, to which they fled for fear of being killed, arrested, persecuted, or tortured.

AGPS further urged UNRWA to step in and work on securing PRS’s right to physical, moral, and legal protection along with their right to free movement and legal stays in host countries.

The international Human Rights Day, observed every year on 10 December, is the day the United Nations General Assembly adopted, in 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR): a milestone document proclaiming the inalienable rights which everyone is inherently entitled to as a human being regardless of race, color, religion, sex, language, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Available in more than 500 languages, it is the most translated document in the world.