• 2011-present: More than 270,000 (about one-half) of the Palestinian refugees registered with UNRWA in Syria, have been internally displaced due to civil war, and more than 75,000 have sought refuge in third countries (Jordan, Egypt, Gaza, Libya, Turkey and East Asia). Those displaced within Syria and other countries remain in need of assistance and are at risk of further displacement.61 UNRWA’s resources are limited and insufficient to adequately assist all Palestinians within its mandate areas.62 Palestinian Refugees from Syria Despite the neutrality adopted by Palestinian refugees in relation to the Syrian civil war, in mid-August 2011, the Syrian Army invaded the Palestinian refugee camp of al-Ramel, in the southern part of the city of Latakia, which forced the displacement of about 5,000 Palestinians.63 On 16 December 2012, a Syrian jet bombed Yarmouk Camp – the biggest Palestinian refugee camp in Syria – in what the government later claimed was an error, killing tens of civilians.64 The mass displacement that followed reduced Yarmouk’s original population of 160,000 to about 30,000 inhabitants.65 Also, in April 2013, 6,000 Palestinian residents of Ein el Tal Camp were forcedly displaced in a single day, “following months of sporadic armed engagements.”66 For those refugees fleeing to Syria’s neighboring countries, Turkey could not be reached by land by most Palestinian refugees, who were located in the south of Syria. Iraq presented a dangerous option, given that Palestinians had been “recently driven out [of the country], having paid the price for the alleged generosity of Saddam Hussein.”67 As a result, most Palestinian refugees from Syria have sought refuge in Jordan and Lebanon. In Lebanon, more than 53,070 Palestinian refugees from Syria were registered with UNRWA as of April 2014. As the Lebanese government remains reluctant to authorize the establishment of new refugee camps, such refugees face difficulties in finding adequate housing, and rental prices remain prohibitively high.68 In addition, on 8 May 2014, the Lebanese Minister of Interior announced new, restrictive regulations for the entry of Palestinian refugees from Syria in the country.69 As a consequence, many Palestinians enter and remain in Lebanon illegally, having their freedom of movement limited because of fear of being discovered and deported – which traps them in their neighborhoods or the camps where they reside – or because they lack documentation – which “hamper[s] their movements at checkpoints and entry and exit to some Palestinian camps which require valid residency permits to enter.”70 Consequently, although URNWA provides services to Palestinian refugees from Syria 61 UNRWA, “Syria Regional Crisis Response Update 75,” May 25, 2014, 75, http://www.unrwa.org/ newsroom/emergency-reports/syria-regional-crisis-response-update-75. 62 UNRWA, “Choices Made, Choices Denied,” accessed October 24, 2014, http://www.unrwa. org/newsroom/official-statements/choices-made-choices-denied; BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights, Survey, 2010-2012, Chapter Three, especially p. 73-74. 63 Nidal Bitari, “Yarmuk Refugee Camp and the Syrian Uprising: A View from Within,” Journal of Palestine Studies 43, no. 1 (2013): 69. 64 Ibid., 73. 65 Gavin David White, “Conflict in Syria Compounds Vulnerability of Palestine Refugees,” Forced Migration Review, no. 44 (September 2013): 79. 66 Ibid. 67 Omar S. Dahi, “Syria in Fragments: The Politics of the Refugee Crisis,” Dissent 61, no. 1 (2014): 46. 68 UNRWA, “PRS in Lebanon,” April 2014, http://www.unrwa.org/prs-lebanon. 69 Amnesty International, Denied Refuge: Palestinians from Syria Seeking Safety in Lebanon, July 1, 2014, 13, http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/MDE18/002/2014/en/902e1caa-9690-453ea756-5f10d7f39fce/mde180022014en.pdf. 70 ACAPS and MapAction, Quarterly Regional Analysis for Syria (RAS) Report, Part II - Host Countries, Syria Needs Assessment (SNAP), April 2014, 9. The Palestinian Refugee Problem: An Overview 11