RAMALLAH, Monday, July 15, 2019 (WAFA) – Azzam al-Ahmad, member of Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), today called a number of Lebanese officials  to discuss with them new measures affecting work of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon.

Ahmad called on Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and the head of the Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee in the Lebanese Prime Minister’s office, Hassan Mneimneh, to discuss the measures taken by the Lebanese Ministry of Labor against various employers and workers at different Lebanese institutions and suspending their work until they obtain a work permit from the state in the framework of "combating illegal foreign labor", which caused great damage to the humanitarian and civil rights of Palestinian refugees living in Lebanon and closing the doors for them to find a living.

Ahmad told  Mneimneh that these measures are contrary to the efforts of the Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee and its ideas on organizing the residency, work and rights of the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, and contrary to international laws and regulations governing the residency of the refugees displaced by force. He stressed that these measures will not serve the common objectives in confronting the policy of resettlement and displacement sought by Israel with the support of the US administration.

According to figures by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), there are about 500,000 Palestinian refugees in Lebanon living in 12 camps. The refugees arrived in Lebanon in 1948 after they were forced to leave their homes in Palestine following the creation of Israel.

M.K.