TNAG-1066-FCO40-1316-Human-rights-in-Hong-Kong-1981 — Page 17

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51.

More than 30 years later, the question of repatriation, resettlement, rehabilitation and compensation has remained unresolved. A whole generation of Palestinians has known no other life than that of refugee camps. The solution of the Palestinian refugee problem, linked to the over-all Palestinian question, remains one of the most complex and difficult tasks of our times. Meanwhile, the challenge of providing relief aid to the refugees, through UNRWA, continues to receive inadequate response from the international community.

In recent years

years UNRWA's annual budget has been in excess of $ 200 million, but due to lack of contributions, parts of the proposed programmes have had to be cut. In his 1980/81 Report to the General Assembly (document A/36/13) the Commis- sioner General of UNRWA projected the 1982 budget at $ 265.6 million but anticipated a deficit of $ 80 million.

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52. In 1975, after the fall of successive governments, inter- communal strife erupted between Christians and Muslims which was not unconnected with the Palestinian presence. result of the ensuing violence that year in which some Pales- tinian groups sided with the Muslims, an estimated 700 000 people were internally displaced and over a quarter of a million left the country.

150 000 reportedly went to Syria, 15 000 to Jordan, 30 000 to Egypt, 25 000 to the United Arab Emirates and 40 000 to Europe (the majority to France).

53. The ICRC in pursuance of its activities related to the Geneva Conventions as well as UN agencies including in par- ticular UNHCR, UNICEF

UNICEF and WFP helped in dealing with the problems of destruction and displaced populations.

54. Progress in reconstructing or repairing thousands of damaged homes and in carrying out other socio-economic activi- ties such as repairs to irrigation systems, roads and bridges as objectives of successive stages of the United Nations programme was severely affected by

by renewed outbreaks of violence which had an even grimmer consequence the uprooting of several hundred thousand more people. By late 1978, renewed emergency assistance was required for a displaced population now estimated by the Government to have reached one million people, out of a total population estimate of only 2.7 million (World Bank figure). The intensity of the internal strife in Lebanon and the catalogue of destruction wrought by Israeli attacks on PLO installations have continued to render people homeless a tragic testimony to the nefarious effects large-scale unresolved uprootings of people may have in successive generations.

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