UNRWA workers protest ‘premeditated plot’ against refugees

AMMAN – UNRWA employees observed a one-hour stoppage and a sit-in in Amman on Wednesday, voicing their concerns over “schemes” concocted against the “incubator of millions of Palestinian refugees”.

Held in front of the agency's headquarters in Amman, the rally, which is part of series of measures to escalate protests, was called upon by the UNRWA workers union in Jordan.

"We are petrified over the options the agency's administration is entertaining now. UNRWA services, especially education, are what we thrive on," one of the agency's teachers, who preferred anonymity, told The Jordan Times.

UNRWA has given donors an ultimatum until mid-August before deciding the fate of the upcoming scholastic year. 

The 66-year-old relief organisation is hit by a chronic financial crisis that might jeopardise its role as a safety network for some 5 million Palestinian refugees, suffering from a $101 million budget deficit.  

"No decision has yet been reached on postponing the school year, but UNRWA should take a decision before mid-August, the date on which UNRWA schools should start," Anwar Abu Sakieneh, UNRWA spokesperson in Amman, told The Jordan Times on Tuesday.

The union handed out a statement during the protest, in which it highlighted that it believes that cutting the agency's services and delaying the start of schools are measures that are "pre-meditated and already decided".

Employees said they based their suspicions on certain recent moves by UNRWA’s administration such as the decision to change the unpaid leave regulations, granting the commissioner general the power to put any employee on unpaid leave for one year.

"Such a decision is considered a flagrant violation of the rights of employees that puts their future and that of their families at stake," said the statement. 

The Jordan Times could not verify the allegations, as agency officials were not available for comment.

Around 5,000 UNRWA educators out of the 22,000 employed in the agency’s five operation areas are in Jordan, the agency’s figures show.