Beirut, Oct 26 (IANS): The poverty rate among Palestinian refugees in Lebanon has increased to more than 90 per cent, the National News Agency reported on Wednesday citing a UN official.
"Most of the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon are unable to secure daily life necessities," Leni Stenseth, deputy commissioner-general of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), said during a press conference held at the UNRWA headquarters in Beirut, Xinhua news agency reported.
Some Palestinian families have stopped sending their children to schools because of the high transportation cost, while others have reduced their daily meals, Stenseth told the press conference after her visit to Palestinian refugees in Lebanon.
She called for an urgent emergency plan to secure $13.2 million before the end of the year to support the hospital and medical sectors and transport costs to guarantee proper education for children.
Hoda Samra, UNRWA's public information officer in Lebanon, told Xinhua that the steep increase in poverty rate among Palestinians in Lebanon is attributed to the rapidly deteriorating socio-economic situation in the country, as well as the high cost of living and low purchasing power of the refugees.
At the beginning of 2022, the number was 75 per cent and now it has soared to 93 per cent, Smara noted.
The UNRWA estimates that 210,000 Palestinian refugees live in Lebanon.