UNRWA's numbers game in Lebanon

UNRWA's webpage on Lebanon says:

More than 479,000 refugees are registered with UNRWA in Lebanon. About 45 percent of them live in the country’s 12 refugee camps. 

The implication is that 55% of them live among the Lebanese, outside of the camps. 

But Lebanon doesn't allow any Palestinians to live outside the camps! 100% of the Palestinians in Lebanon live in camps. Where are the other 55%?

UNRWA doesn't want you to know that they have left Lebanon altogether. Because UNRWA wants to tell the world that it should be funded for 479,000 "refugees," not less than half that amount.

UNRWA does this consciously. In a recent article on Lebanon's woes, UNRWA writes, "UNRWA remains the main provider of basic services, such as health, education and camp improvement to over 210,000 Palestine refugees present in Lebanon. These include about 28,000 Palestine refugees from Syria."

In fact, when you subtract the Syrian refugees, actual UNRWA recipients are less than 40% of the "refugees" registered in Lebanon. 

If anyone of Palestinian descent needs aid, the ones remaining in Lebanon do. Lebanon has literal apartheid laws aimed at keeping them landless, stateless, jobless and incarcerated in camps they can't easily leave. 

But UNRWA has the obligation to be honest about the number of people it serves. It shouldn't play fast and loose with those numbers to scam more money from the international community. 

---

---