Whilst only a third of registered Palestinian refugees live within the boundaries of the refugee camps, Palestinian refugees "show extraordinary social and economic integration outside the camps and informal gatherings". Many Palestinian refugees live in adjacent or nearby "gatherings", defined as "the geographic area, outside the official camps, which is home to a minimum 15 Palestinian households."
The total number of registered Palestine refugees has grown from 750,000 in 1950 to around 5 million in 2013.
Definition of Palestinian refugee
Shatila refugee camp on the outskirts of Beirut in May 2019Shu'fat Camp in the city of Jerusalem. The official area of the camp is in the center of the image and is characterized by low-rise buildings; on either side of the camp are additional Palestinian neighborhoods located beyond the Israeli West Bank barrier (visible at the bottom of the image), where the buildings are taller.
UNRWA's mandate is to provide assistance to Palestinian refugees, including access to its refugee camps. For this purpose, it defines Palestinian refugees as "persons whose normal place of residence was Palestine during the period 1 June 1946 to 15 May 1948, and who lost both home and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 conflict."
UNRWA also extends assistance to the patrilineal descendants of such refugees, as well as their legally adopted children.
Role of UNRWA
For a camp to be recognized by UNRWA, there must be an agreement between the host government and UNRWA governing use of the camp. UNRWA does not itself run any camps, has no police powers or administrative role, but simply provides services to the camp. UNRWA recognizes facilities in 58 designated refugee camps in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and it also provides facilities in other areas where large numbers of registered Palestine refugees live outside of recognized camps. UNRWA also provided relief to Jewish displaced persons inside Israel following the 1948 conflict until the Israeli government took over responsibility for them in 1952. Refugee camps developed from tented cities to rows of concrete blockhouses to urban ghettos indistinguishable from their surroundings (effectively becoming urban developments within existing cities or by themselves), that house around one third of all registered Palestine refugees.
The Funding for UNRWA activities comes almost entirely from voluntary contributions from UN member states. UNRWA also receives some funding from the Regular Budget of the United Nations, which is used mostly for international staffing costs.
List of camps
The camps are divided between five regions:
Gaza Strip: The Gaza Strip has eight official and no unofficial refugee camps, and 1,221,110 registered refugees.
West Bank: The West Bank has 19 official and four unofficial refugee camps, and 741,409 registered refugees.
Syria: Syria has nine official refugee camps and three unofficial refugee camps, and 499,189 registered refugees.
Lebanon: There are 12 official refugee and no unofficial camps in Lebanon, and 448,599 registered refugees.
Jordan: There are 10 official and three unofficial refugee camps in Jordan, and 2,034,641 registered refugees.
The evolution of Palestinian refugee population is shown below:
1950
1960
1970
1980
1990
2000
2004
2009
2018
Jordan
506,200
613,743
506,038
716,372
929,097
1,570,192
1,758,274
1,951,603
2,242,579
Lebanon
127,600
136,561
175,958
226,554
302,049
376,472
396,890
422,188
475,075
Syria
82,194
115,043
158,717
209,362
280,731
383,199
417,346
461,897
560,139
West Bank
–
–
272,692
324,035
414,298
583,009
675,670
762,820
846,465
Gaza Strip
198,227
255,542
311,814
367,995
496,339
824,622
938,531
1,073,303
1,421,282
Total registered refugees
914,221
1,120,889
1,425,219
1,844,318
2,422,514
3,737,494
4,186,711
4,671,811
5,545,540
The number of Palestinian refugees living within the UNWRA registered area of operations is shown below, both those living in camps and those living outside camps:
Registered persons (refugees and other)
Registered refugees in camps
% registered refugees in camps
1953
870,158
300,785
34.6
1955
912,425
351,532
38.5
1960
1,136,487
409,223
36.0
1965
1,300,117
508,042
39.1
1970
1,445,022
500,985
34.7
1975
1,652,436
551,643
33.4
1980
1,863,162
613,149
32.9
1985
2,119,862
805,482
38.0
1990
2,466,516
697,709
28.3
1995
3,246,044
1,007,375
31.0
2000
3,806,055
1,227,954
32.3
2005
4,283,892
1,265,987
29.6
2010
4,966,664
1,452,790
29.3
2015
5,741,480
1,632,876
28.4
2018
6,171,793
1,728,409
28.0
The table below shows the population of registered refugees, other registered people, and refugees residing in camps, in 2018. UNRWA's definition of Other Registered Persons refer to "those who, at the time of original registration did not satisfy all of UNRWA's Palestine refugee criteria, but who were determined to have suffered significant loss and/or hardship for reasons related to the 1948 conflict in Palestine; they also include persons who belong to the families of other registered persons."
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