Palestinian refugees in Cyprus in dire straits

Palestinian refugees who fled to Cyprus following the war in Iraq are complaining about their "worsening" plight and say the Palestinian Authority is partly to blame for the situation.

A group of the Palestinian refugees told a delegation from Ramallah taking part in an international karate tournament in Limasol, Cyprus that due to lack of support from the Cyprus government as well as the PA, they are facing tremendous hardships.

Despite promises by the Cyprus government to grant them temporary asylum on humanitarian reasons, without granting citizenship, "our situation worsened gradually and we are not even allowed to work," Husam Abdul-Hafith al-Mahdi told the members of the delegation.

Abdul-Rahman Al-Hasan, the leader of the Palestinian community in Larnaka, which consists of 2,800 refugees, expressed concern for the community's activities and their education, since they are unable to afford the costs.

"The situation will become even worse when the lease expires and we lose the building used by the community as a gathering place and school," he said.

Last year, Abdullah Issa, a Palestinian businessman from Cyprus, paid the building's rent, Al-Hasan said.

Even after the Palestine Liberation Organization's diaspora official, Tayseer Khaled, was informed about the lease's expiration and their inability to pay the rent, no concrete steps were taken, the Palestinian refugees say.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=119115§ionid=351020202.