International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell who is to give 19 million hard-earned taxpayers pounds to UNRWA.
The UNRWA was founded in 1949 to deal with the refugee crisis caused by the invasion of the new State of Israel by five Arab armies. 61 years and billions upon billions of pounds later, it has demonstrably failed. The Arab refugees of Palestine have been kept in misery by the neglect of the states in the region, the intransigence of Arab States in refusing to recognise the State of Israel and the pouring of billions of pounds into armed attacks on that State, instead of into the provision of basic necessities for refugees and the means for them to remedy their own misfortunes by their own efforts. I present the example of Cyprus, a small country burdened with a huge refugee problem by an Invasion by a foreign Country in 1974. Find a refugee camp in Cyprus. Find refugees from Famagusta or other areas occupied by Turkey still living in squalor and poverty. Hint. You can’t.
Another 19 million pounds of British tax-payers’ cash flushed down the toilet.
Boadicea's Chariot 
I heard this last night and wondered why 19m pounds was being sent to deal with a problem that never seems to end. It’s always amazed me that no one seems to understand that giving ‘aid’ in this way simply allows the problem to fester.
Bravo, I’m sure I’m being thick but what exactly is the point of comparing the Isreal/Arab region with Cyprus?
You’d have thought that sending Blair as Middle East peace envoy would have solved the problem. I do object to an British taxpayers’ money being given out as International Aid. The British people are very generous with contributions to charities, especially when there’s been some sort of national disaster. We know what happens to aid handed out by the government to another government.
In reality, it’s even worse, this £19 million is just part of a £100 million commitment by our then New Labour government in 2006. The timing of the announcement of this is interesting though.
I have to admit that Bravo is correct. On my one and only visit to Cyprus I didn’t see any refugee camps but I did see a number of completely empty villages along the border.
I was once told that the idea behind giving International Aid was to stop the refugees flooding the West – doesn’t seem to be working… 🙂
Perhaps we should increase our contributions then, Boadicea! 😉
Janus, the point was that the Palestinian refugees have had a UN Agency solely dedicated to their problem for 61 years. Kicked out of Lebanon; kicked out of Jordan; billions of pounds flushed down the bog – or sequestered in Swiss bank accounts. In 1974, when Turkey invaded Cyprus, something on the order of 170 – 180,000 people from a population of, maybe 650-700,000 at the time were made refugees. Was a dedicated UN Agency created to solve their problems? No. Was money to help the Cyprus Government donated to help? Of course – and the people of Cyprus are still paying through the refugee tax imposed on all postage in Cyprus. Are there any refugees still living in camps? Not getting housed, schools for their children, jobs, medical care etc, etc, etc? No. Comparison of how two similar situations were dealt with – with the one in Cyprus being proportionately much worse – was the point.
What, then, is the point of throwing more cash into a bottomless hole?
On a lighter note. I had been living in a UN Barracks in Polemidhia up until April 1974. After the invasion in July, it was proposed to move the UN Regiment occupying the barracks at the time and use the accomodation for refugees. The UN reps for the refugees turned up to look at the barracks….and condemned it as unfit for human habitation!
The fact that International Aid doesn’t seem to be stopping refugees trying to make it to Europe would seem to prove that the aid never reaches the people for whom it’s intended. So we should stop contributing to the pension funds of corrupt leaders. And can that include Brown and Blair?
What I really object to is that we are still sending aid to India and China, countries that both have a booming economy (for now) and their own independent nuclear deterrent and space program!
Like so much in today’s world, it beggars belief.