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Ammon News - By Amal Ghabayen

AMMONNEWS - A number of poor residents of Al Baqa'a Refugee Camp north of Amman called for an open sit-in in front of the Palestinian Affairs Department to protest the mechanisms of distributing aid on poor refugee residents.

A representative of the group, Ziyad Elaimi, told Ammon News that the Jordanian government needs to intervene to put an end to what he described as "encroachment" of the Palestinian Affairs Department on the rights of poor refugee residents, stressing that they will protest until the aid distribution regulations are "corrected."

Elaimi blasted the Palestinian Affairs Department's donations to sports clubs and restricting the aid to certain segments in the Palestinian refugee camp exclusively of others.

On his part, Palestinian Affairs Department deputy chief Mahmoud Aqrabawi told Ammon News that the new aid distribution mechanism recently endorsed - stipulating financial assistance rather than care packages - came as a result of many refugee residents selling the contents of the packages for prices reaching nearly a third of their actual price.

"The department saw it suitable to allocate a large part of the aid to sports clubs because they serve many orphaned youth," Aqrabawi added in defending the group's claims.

Aqrabawi charged that the group intending to protest does not qualify for the allocated aid, and therefore, "do not deserve it."

"The Department will not be pressured by threats and will resume its aid distribution mechanisms that are conducive to the needs of the poor and serves their purposes," Aqrabawi said, adding that the Department will buy Eid al Fitr clothes for children and provide school supplies ahead of the upcoming school year.