More than 200 first payments on account of blocked bank accounts of Palestine Arab refugees now residing in Syria and Lebanon were made during the month of September, it was announced here today by the United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine.
More payments will be made to refugees in those countries, a Commission spokesman revealed, and payments on applications arriving from other countries will be made as fast as the applications can be checked and approved. More than 150,000 pounds sterling had been paid out by the end of September to applicants from countries as far away as Australia and the United States.
The first applications from Lebanon arrived in Jerusalem banks July 3, while the first applications from Syria came in by August 19. At the end of September, the cumulative total of applications–which should have been filed before the August 31 deadline–stood at almost 3, 200. Of this total, 1,590 have already been approved. It is anticipated that 400, 000 pounds sterling will be paid out on all the applications.
The Commission spokesman said that the Commission hoped that the remaining applications would be processed by the end of November, adding that payment on forms approved in November will start in December. The Commission’s Jerusalem representative will file a progress report soon with the Commission’s headquarters at the United Nations in New York.
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