Palestinian officials demand reopening the Red Cross office in Qalqilya

Palestinian officials have called for the re-opening of the International Red Cross’s branch office in Qalqilya, an administrative area in the northwest of the occupied West Bank. The office was closed two months before, due to a financial deficit.

Issa Qaraqea, the Minister of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs; Major General Rafe Rawajbeh, the governor of Qalqilya; and Kadoura Fares, the detainee club’s president, explained that the closure of the office was a mistake and a miscalculation that has led to the suffering of more than 300 families of prisoners in the governorate. As a result of the closure, these families have been forced to travel to Nablus for registration and follow-up, facing many hardships, especially when it comes to women and the elderly.

The officials pointed out that the Qalqilya governorate also suffers from the closure of the office because it too must navigate the separation wall and military barriers, and that the Red Cross should be working with the prisoners’ families directly inside the governorate.

Qaraqea revealed that a meeting with the head of the International Red Cross will be held in Geneva in the coming few days and he will be asking the charity to reverse its decision and re-open the office in Qalqilya, in addition to raising some issues related to the services provided by the Red Cross to prisoners and the complaints from prisoners’ families; especially the issues related to their visits and the inspections at the barriers.

The officials made their statements during a meeting that took place at the Martyr Abu Jihad centre for vocational training in Qalqilya, in the presence of the Dean of the Faculty of Social and Family Development Dr Emad Shateyah and Al-Quds Open University’s local branch manager Dr Khalid Alkarwani, as well as detainees and ex-detainees’ families.

During the meeting, a study about the detention of children and its impact was also presented, which had been prepared by Al-Quds Open University students. The study details the risks faced by children during their detention.

Source: Arabs 48.com