UNRWA may not be able to pay salaries due to deficit crisis

The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) may not be able to pay the salaries of its employees in the coming months as its financial situation was "extremely dangerous", a spokesman for the agency warned.

"The lack of sufficient funds and the absence of a continuous flow of grants will affect the agency's ability to pay the salaries of its employees on time during the next two months," Xinhua news agency quoted Sami Mshasha, spokesman of the UNRWA, as saying to the official Voice of Palestine radio.

"Hopes are still pinned on the donor countries meeting, scheduled for Wednesday in Brussels, to raise the level of support and draw up sustainable long-term financing mechanisms for the agency," he noted.

Mshasha revealed that the UNRWA's financial deficit has reached about $100 million and is in dire need of quick financial resources for November and December.

Without long-term sustainable financing mechanisms, "the UNRWA will not be able to carry out its work and provide its services or improve it", he concluded.

Established by the UN General Assembly in 1949, the UNRWA was mandated to provide assistance and protection for some 5.6 million Palestinian refugees in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan.-IANS