Palestine working on securing official paperwork for refugees in PH

Paperwork processing for Palestinian refugees to live “normal lives” in the Philippines is underway amid the conflict between Israel and Hamas in the country.

In a press conference at Makati City on Thursday, Palestinian Foreign Minister Varsen Shahin shared that Palestinian refugees had been warmly welcomed in the Philippines upon their arrival.

However, there was now a need for their papers to be fixed and sorted as they needed to be able to function in the country.

“They need to start working. They need to start to have a normal living, and you can only have a normal living once your papers are sorted out and you can function as a normal person,” she said.

Shahin said they were unable to determine why papers were still not fixed despite the refugees having been in the country for years.

She also added that there were no talks about any citizenship status being granted to the refugees.

“This was brought up and we said that we need to find ways of sorting out the papers because some of them came here as refugees because one of the spouses is a Filipino, and they could bring the spouse and the rest of the family. They were very well taken care of when they landed here, but now they need the papers to be sorted out,” Shahin said.

The foreign minister said arrangements needed to be prepared while refugees were making their choice on how to proceed with their lives, regardless of whether they decide to return to Palestine or permanently stay in the Philippines.

“We talked about sorting the papers so that [the refugees] can have a normal life until such a time when they decide if they want to stay or want to go back. Who am I to tell a cousin that has been bombarded for two years and is living on rubble and has nothing in the most unlivable environment you can think of to step back [to Palestine]?” she asked.

“[The papers would be] allowing them to work, allowing them to have driver's licenses, allowing them to make a living so that they can continue their life for whatever time they want to stay here or even if they want to stay forever… Something needs to be done in the very near future so that they can figure out how they move on,” she added.

Palestinian officials shared that they estimated that around 8 million refugees from their country are currently being sheltered by nations worldwide.

In 2024, Filipino-Palestinian refugees spoke out to ask for aid as the Philippine government reportedly stopped their assistance to repatriated families from Gaza.

However, the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency-National Capital Region (NICA-NCR) had said that the government had been addressing their needs, including livelihood and employment. — BAP, GMA Integrated News