On the week of 65th anniversary of the 1951 Refugee Convention, LPHR and Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) are today launching an initiative – outlined in a joint briefing here – that aims to ensure that the most vulnerable Palestinian refugees from Syria are given equal access to international protection by the UK government’s relevant resettlement schemes.
We have identified and received confirmation that Palestinian refugees from Syria are excluded from the UK government’s flagship Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme. Furthermore, we have obtained information from the UK government which reveals that no Palestinian refugees from Syria have to date been resettled in the UK through the ‘Gateway’ resettlement programme that it operates with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
This significant protection gap must be closed to ensure that the UK government’s vital resettlement programmes for individuals who have fled Syria does not deny international protection to the most vulnerable Palestinian refugees from Syria on the discriminatory basis of nationality.
LPHR and MAP’s joint briefing, published today, introduces and illuminates this fundamental issue. It highlights the stories of some Palestinian refugees from Syria whose situation demonstrates the lack of medical access faced by a number of Palestinians in refugee camps. The briefing also outlines policy recommendations to the UK government which we believe would remedy the basic protection concern that we have identified regarding the exclusion of Palestinian refugees from Syria from the UK’s relevant resettlement programmes.
MAP and LPHR will be working together in the coming months to try to ensure that these recommendations are considered and adopted by the UK government as part of its critical contribution to the protection of the most vulnerable refugees from Syria.
You can read the full briefing here.
Contact information:
Tareq Shrourou, Director of LPHR,
Tony Laurance, CEO of MAP, 44 (0) 20 7226 4114