Situation of the refugees in the Middle East

Recommendation 520 (1968)

Author(s):

Parliamentary Assembly

Origin

Assembly Debate on 2nd February 1968 (20th Sitting) (see Doc. 2337, report of the Committee on Population and Refugees). Text adopted by the Assembly on 2nd February 1968 (20th Sitting).

The Assembly,

1. Considering that, as a result of the military action which took place in the Middle East in June 1967, the problems raised by the hundreds of thousands of refugees already existing in that region have become seriously aggravated ;

2. Deeply concerned at the situation of these refugees who are living in over-crowded conditions and abject poverty ;

3. Considering that the existence of this vast mass of refugees in close proximity to the area occupied by the territories of member States of the Council of Europe constitutes one of the major problems of the present time ;

4. Believing that the Council of Europe, the repository of the moral and humanitarian values of European civilisation, is in duty bound to contribute towards a solution of that problem ;

5. In view of paragraph 9 (c) of Resolution 359 (1968) of the Assembly on the general policy of the Council of Europe, advocating a regional development plan for the Middle East ;

6. In view of the report of the Committee on Population and Refugees (Doc. 2337),

7. Recommends that the Committee of Ministers :

a make directly, or through the Council of Europe Special Representative for National Refugees and Over-Population, a symbolic payment of the order of 500,000 FF as a special contribution to be divided between the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Middle East (UNRWA) and the League of Red Cross Societies ;

b ask member Governments to give their political and financial support to the effort already made by the United Nations and all specialised agencies and notably the voluntary agencies co-ordinated in the International Council of Voluntary Agencies (ICVA), to resolve the problem of refugees in the Middle East by their return to a normal way of life ;

c urge member Governments to take to this end all appropriate steps within the framework of the United Nations with a view to international action being taken :

to develop the desert and semi-desert areas in that region ;

to promote school education and vocational training of the refugees themselves, so as to enable them to play an effective part in this development ;

to enable those refugees who so desire to emigrate especially through the assistance of the Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration (ICEM) to other countries after receiving suitable preparation.