The Action Group for Palestinians of Syria completed a field study on the return of the displaced and the reconstruction of the "Yarmouk" camp for Palestinian refugees in Damascus.
The study included the decisions to return the people issued by the regime authorities, the procedures they impose to enter the camp, and the most prominent obstacles to return.
The AGPS also monitored the procedures for rehabilitating the infrastructure of the electricity, water and sewage networks, restoration and reconstruction, obstacles to the residence of the returnees to the camp and their educational and health conditions.
Journalist Mahmoud Zaghmout, member of the Action Group for Palestinians of Syria, told Zaman Al-Wasl that the motives for completing the study are to assess the situation of Yarmouk camp at the level of reconstruction, rehabilitation and the return of the displaced, and to put public opinion in the form of the latest developments.
The field study comes as a continuation of a series of studies and reports that the Human Rights Monitoring Group has been publishing on the conditions of Palestinian refugees and Palestinian camps in Syria through its team, which includes a network of correspondents, a number of journalists and specialized researchers.
The AGPS relied on a network of correspondents in addition to the reports of a number of institutions and activists interested in the issue of Yarmouk refugee camp, and the statements of camp residents at home and abroad, adding that the group had previously conducted a questionnaire in which hundreds of camp residents participated in a number of files.
Regarding the most prominent difficulties and obstacles facing the displaced Yarmouk residents who wish to return, Zaghmout pointed out that the most prominent of these difficulties are the rise in house rents, the cost of living, the deteriorating economic conditions in the country, the loss of sources of income and means of earning a living, and the high rates of unemployment and poverty among them.
Meanwhile, residents who have returned to the camp suffer from the absence of basic services or the difficulty of securing them, such as water, electricity, transportation, basic food supplies, means of heating, and the lack of health care in the absence of hospitals, medical centers or pharmacies inside the camp.
The study highlighted the reluctance of UNRWA and its procrastination in restoring its service and educational institutions inside the camp. The PLO and the Palestinian factions ignored the suffering of the people, despite their repeated statements regarding support for the return of the population, the active movement in removing the rubble and the desire of the displaced to return. And the chances of the recent organizational scheme that gnaws at large areas of the camp have receded.
A report of the AGPS issued in early April shed light on mounting poverty rates among Palestinian refugees in Syria which have reached unprecedented levels.
The economic crisis has intensified due to their inability to secure the most basic elements of their continuity of life, their loss of their livelihoods, and low income rates. And the high rates of spending on food due to the depletion of the value of the Syrian pound and its purchasing power, and the high rates of inflation that have reached their maximum limits, in addition to the spread of the Corona pandemic, the high cost and loss of medicine, and the absence of major life commodities in the markets.
UNRWA had stated in its emergency appeal for the year 2021 regarding the Syrian crisis that 91% of Palestinian refugee families in Syria live in extreme poverty on less than two US dollars per person per day.
The Action Group for Palestinians of Syria had previously issued dozens of special documentary reports that documented and monitored the conditions of Palestinians of Syria in various fields, in addition to 3,552 reports that documented the daily developments of the conditions of Palestinians of Syria inside and outside the country.
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