UNRWA predicts tough impact on Jordan if aid freeze continues

A tour through the Wehdat camp in Amman reveals danger of a health crisis should the agency's role diminish

Pupils attend an English class at a school run by the UN relief agency for Palestinian refugees in Wehdat camp in east Amman, Jordan, on Tuesday. All photos by Khaled Yacoub Oweis / The National

An ice cream and sandwich shop in Wehdat refugee camp

Pupils' representatives at the UNRWA school

Olaf Becker, director of UNRWA Affairs in the Jordan field office

Live updates: Follow the latest from Israel-Gaza

Former German banker Olaf Becker specialised in management efficiency before becoming head of the Jordanian branch of UNRWA two years ago, the main organisation helping Palestinian refugees in Gaza and the rest of the Levant.

Faced with a funding freeze by Washington and other donors in response to alleged ties between UNRWA and Hamas, Mr Becker’s speciality is unlikely to alleviate the severity of the crisis now facing his organisation. Service cuts to hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees are unavoidable.

“We will have (to start with) scaling back our least critical services,” said Mr Becker, as he gave journalists a tour of UNRWA facilities in the Wehdat camp in East Amman, one of ten officially recognised Palestinian refugee camps in Jordan.

He did not give a timeline, saying possible cuts could be “very detrimental in terms of social issues in Jordan,” referring to people who could be losing their jobs.

The focus on the humanitarian impact of the Gaza war underpin's the organisation's regional role, particularly in Jordan, where 2.4 million of the 5.9 million people registered as Palestinian refugees with UNRWA reside.

The refugees are spread over the Palestinian territories, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan.

UNRWA, the UN's Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, has said it may have to start shutting down operations as early as this month in Gaza and across the region, if funding does not resume.

Suspended funds are equivalent to $440 million, comprising nearly half of the agency’s operating costs.

The funding freezes followed Israeli allegations that a dozen UNRWA staff took part in the October 7 attacks by Hamas on southern Israel, which killed about 1,200 people, mainly civilians.

A UN panel is reviewing the accusations as UNRWA's ability to continue its role, which is derived from a 1949 General Assembly resolution, becomes more difficult.

A refugee leaves a UNWRA medical centre at the Asker refugee camp, near Balatah, east of Nablus, in the occupied West Bank. AFP

The organisation is one of Jordan's largest employers, with 7,000 people on its payroll, Mr Becker said. It operates 169 schools attended by 119,000 students, 25 clinics, and gives cash handouts to 60,000 of the most impoverished refugees in the kingdom.

UNRWA also provides sanitation in the 10 official Palestinian camps in Jordan, where 400,000 people live.

Students wave balloons for the arrival of the Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) Pierre Krahenbuhl at Nuzha Girls School, in Amman, Jordan. EPA

Tens of thousands of Palestinian refugees returned to school in Jordan on Sunday as the embattled United Nations Relief and Works Agency highlighted the support of the UAE and other Arab states in keeping the schools open. EPA

Pierre Krahenbuhl, centre, promised that UNRWA would do everything to “protect our flagship education programme”. EPA

At a school in east Amman, children carried balloons, showed off their new backpacks and sang to mark the opening of the new school year. EPA

Mr Krahenbuhl receives a gift during his visit at Al Nuzha Girls School, in Amman - one of 169 schools that almost did not reopen due to funding challenges. EPA

The UAE provided $50m to UNRWA in 2019 and $50m in 2018, funds that were critical for the functioning of schools such as Al Nuzha. EPA

Students pose for a photograph. EPA

Pierre Krahenbuhl meets some of the pupils. He says the UAE has been a very important and dynamic partner for UNRWA. EPA

A Student walks down the stairs, at Nuzha Girls School, in Amman, Jordan. EPA

“Another thing is the symbolic value UNWRA has for Palestinian refugees,” Mr Becker said. “We are seen as kind of the last flag bearer … for a hopeful justice-driven solution,” he said.

Unlike Lebanon, whose government places a variety of restrictions on Palestinians, most of the Palestinian refugees in Jordan have Jordanian citizenship, although some are only issued temporary documents and face labour restrictions. Syrian authorities also do not give citizenship to Palestinians.

Jordan is also the only country among the three that has been free from civil strife, after devastating civil wars in Lebanon in the 1970s and '80s, and Syria after 2011. The last prolonged violence in the kingdom was in 1970-1971, when the Palestinian Liberation Organisation was expelled to Lebanon.

Asked if UNRWA could operate with less money, Mr Becker said that there is little scope for that, considering that it is “one of the very few direct service providing organisations in the United Nations”.

He cited operating costs for its schools in Jordan that are 20 per cent less than those of Jordanian government schools, and reductions in the last several years in the running costs of UNRWA's clinics.

“What do you chose (to cut)? Do you chose health care versus education, versus sanitation?” he said, pointing out the relatively clean streets of Wehdat camp.

If the UNRWA role sharply declines, a public health problem could arise, he said, in a country comprising “the only stable environment we operate in”.