Ministry of Foreign Affairs and expatriates: Ambassador Badran: We completely reject any move to overthrow the right of return or distort the issue of Palestinian refugees

The Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs and expatriates for Refugees and expatriates, Ambassador Ra'fat Badran, expressed his total and unequivocal rejection of any move by any party, including the United States of America and the Israeli occupation government, to overthrow the right of return or distort the issue of the Palestinian refugees, through attempts Settlement, or liquidation of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) or its funding, or the so-called redefinition of the legal status of the Palestine refugee, with a view to depriving the generations of Palestine refugees and their descendants of the right to return.

He called on all Member States to continue to work and to continue and intensify efforts to counter such illegal attempts.

This was made in an intervention at the fifth meeting of the Arab Regional consultation process on migration and asylum (ARCP), held at the League of Arab States, in the presence of the Assistant Secretary-General and Head of Social affairs sector of the Arab League, Ambassador Haifa Abu-Ghazaleh, and the participation of representatives of stakeholders in the affairs Immigration, expatriates, communities residing abroad and those responsible for the immigration and asylum file in the concerned authorities in the Arab countries.

Ambassador Badran said that the issue of Palestinian refugees is at the heart of the Palestinian cause, stressing the upholding of the inherent and inalienable right of the generations of Palestine refugees and their descendants to return to their homes from which they were displaced in accordance with the resolutions of international legitimacy, in particular General Assembly resolution 194 ( 1948), the Arab peace Initiative and the affirmation of the legal, political and moral responsibility of Israel (the occupying Power) for the emergence and continuation of the Palestinian refugee problem.

He expressed deep concern about the situation of the Palestinian refugee camps in Syria, and stressed the continued demand that they be kept free of arms and weapons and that they be lifted, their reconstruction restored to them and their inhabitants provided with all the necessary services to support the Palestinian refugees there.

Badran emphasized the mandate given to UNRWA under its establishment (General Assembly resolution 302 of 1949) and its mandate or responsibility not to change or transfer its responsibilities, and to ensure that UNRWA and its legal authority remained the United Nations and stressed the need to continue UNRWA to assume its responsibilities in providing services to Palestine refugees inside and outside the camps in all areas of operation, and said: The State of Palestine categorically rejects attempts to terminate or diminish the role of the mandate of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), through the Israeli campaigns Systematic against it. The State of Palestine also expresses its categorical rejection of the United States decision or any similar decision to discontinue or reduce the funding of UNRWA and to warn of the seriousness of this, depriving it of one third of the operational budget and exposing full generations of Palestine refugees protected by international legitimacy resolutions to the loss Health, education and service services, crippling an unacceptable attempt to obliterate the refugee issue, which forms an integral part of "Final resolution issues", and calling on the international community to commit itself to delegating the agency and securing the necessary resources and financial contributions to adequately and sustainably balance and activities Enable it to continue to play its role in providing basic services to the victims of the Nakba, as a right that the international community has a responsibility to fulfil in accordance with United Nations General Assembly resolution 194 of 1948, thereby enhancing security and stability in the region.

He also stressed the need to invite Member States of the United Nations General Assembly to launch a global appeal to broaden the base of UNRWA's donor countries to include all Member States and to call for greater effort at the level of regional organizations, political groups, development banks and other financial institutions to increase The financial contributions of the Agency in order to ensure sustainable solutions for its financing, and to underline the importance of continuing to provide the necessary political, moral and financial support for the regular and emergency programmes and activities of the international relief Agency, and to invite the General Secretariat and its missions abroad and the Councils of Arab ambassadors to To continue to activate the various channels of communication with all donor countries, urging them to meet their financial obligations to the Agency and enable them to carry out their duties in full and not to hold the host Arab states to additional burdens, which are primarily the responsibility of UNRWA.

Ambassador Badran called on Member States to complete the payment of their contributions to the annual budget of UNRWA, in order to operationalize the successive resolutions of the Council of the League of Arab States at ministerial level since 1987, and urged all those contributing to the financial support of UNRWA to give priority to the payment The contributions of States to the UNRWA budget, and then to provide voluntary support to the remaining projects, and invited all donors and donor countries to meet their financial commitments made at the conferences held in New York on 27/9/2018 and in Rome on 15/3/2018, to support the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Refugees Of Palestinians (UNRWA), in order to enable it to carry out its humanitarian tasks and political mandate towards the Palestine refugees until their case is resolved in accordance with UN Resolution 194 of 1948, and to thank the friendly countries that provide support to UNRWA, and noted the importance of developing programs that seek to reduce the fragility of the situation Of migrants and refugees, in accordance with national legislation, in order to harness their skills and potential (human, social, economic, cultural and other) to build resilience.

The meeting is expected to produce a position paper on the twelfth session of the Global Forum on Migration and development, to be held in Ecuador in November 2019, and the content of the statement to be issued by the consultation process on the occasion of World Refugee Day on June 20, 2019, will be agreed.

The meeting is part of the implementation of the resolution adopted by the Council of the League of Arab States at ministerial level No. 7833 of September 7, 2014 at its regular session (142) on the periodicity of the regional consultation meetings on migration in the region.

The meeting was attended by Ambassador Badran, advisor Jumanah Al Ghoul of the delegation of Palestine at the Arab League, and the official of the University of the Arab League in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and expatriates Third Secretary Ola al-Tamimi.