figures for registered refugees in camps are larger than the total camp population enumerated in the census." From the overall census. it can be concluded that somewhere between 200.000 and 500.000 refugees of the total of 1.3 million are nonexistent ghosts. many of whom still receive UNRWA aid. The methods used by the Israeli census takers have. as anticipated. been challenged by UNRWA officials In Beirut. The Israelis. for example. decined to count the grandchildren of refugees as refugees. But there was enough proof in the Israeli census to force UNRWA to start taking an independent survey of its own at last. I am confident that the UNRWA findings will radically change the long distorted view of the nature of the refugee problem and change UNRWA itself. The Israeli census reduced the refugee problem to manageable dimensions. thus now permitting some chance of solution. I determined to make an onthescene investigation. In March. 1968. I asked for and received a commission from the State Department to make another survey in Arab countries to study onthespot what the true refugee picture is today. In Beirut. Lebanon. I came upon an aspect of UNRWAs stewardship that may be more significant than the inflated refugee count. I met a representative of UNESCO. the United Nations Educational. Scientific and Cultural Organizations. who is in charge of the educational division of UNRWA operations In the Middle East. I learned from him that since 1951. the UN had given UNESCO responsibility for setting refugee educational standards. For reasons still unknown to me. UNESCO until recently had either abdicated .its responsibility or had been excluded from
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refugee refugees