The population of refugees reflected in the global statistics does not necessarily coincide precisely with the population of particular focus for development actors. Of the 16.1 million refugees and people in refugeelike situations under UNHCR’s mandate at the end of 2015, 2.4 million were living in high-income (OECD and non-OECD) countries that do not qualify for assistance from development organizations.<sup>21</sup> Additionally, even within low and middle-income asylum countries, there may be pockets of refugees in protracted displacement who may not have achieved a legal solution to their displacement (i.e. naturalization in the host country, voluntary repatriation to their home country or resettlement in a third country) but who no longer have specific economic and social vulnerabilities linked to their having been displaced. They may no longer have protection or assistance needs, they may have achieved a high degree of economic and social inclusion, they may enjoy most of the privileges of citizenship, and they may have achieved a standard of living equal to that of nationals, e.g. over 300,000 ethnically Chinese refugees who fled from Vietnam to China between 1979 and 1982 (UNHCR 2007). On the other hand, there may be refugees who fall out of the global statistics when they are naturalized but who continue to be of interest to development actors because they still face specific vulnerabilities linked to their displacement, e.g. Burundian refugees newly naturalized in Tanzania.

# **The special case of Palestinian refugees**

The legal definition of Palestinian refugees is unique and distinct from the definition of refugees in the 1951 Convention. Palestinian refugees fall within the mandate of UNRWA,<sup>22</sup> which operates in Jordan, Lebanon, the Syrian Arab Republic, Gaza and the West Bank. UNRWA defines “Palestine refugees” as individuals and their patrilineal descendants whose normal place of residence was the British Mandate for Palestine during the period 1 June 1946 to 15 May 1948, and who lost their homes and livelihoods as a result of the 1948 conflict.<sup>23</sup> Palestinian refugees living outside UNRWA’s five areas of operation fall under the responsibility of UNHCR and are included in UNHCR statistics. There are other groups that are entitled to receive UNRWA services but are not identified as refugees in UNRWA’s registration system including those displaced by the 1967 and 1982 Arab-Israeli conflicts. Some Palestinian refugees may be also reflected in IDP statistics, for example it is estimated that of 560,000 Palestinian refugees registered in Syria, 280,000 were internally displaced as of December 2015 (UNRWA 2016).

The number of registered Palestinian refugees has grown steadily from 0.9 million in 1952 to over 5.2 million in 2015 (see Figure 2). This substantial growth in the numbers of Palestinian refugees is a consequence of: (a) the uniqueness of Palestinian refugee status which, unlike refugee status granted under the 1951 Convention, is maintained even in the event of naturalization in a country of asylum (e.g. the granting of citizenship to Palestinian refugees in Jordan) or resettlement in a third country (e.g. 200,000 Palestinian refugees are thought to have left Lebanon but are still reflected in registration data); (b) registration of descendants of male Palestinian refugees; (c) high fertility rates (Khawaja 2003); (d) a voluntary system of registration and deregistration linked to the provision of UNRWA services creating an incentive to register or maintain registration in areas of UNRWA operations; and (e) an imperfect process of verification and updating of registration data which may not immediately reflect all deaths.

> 21 While refugees in high-income countries are beyond the reach of development assistance provided by development actors, they may still have an impact on overall development assistance (e.g. some states report the costs of the first year of hosting asylum-seekers as ODA), on countries of origin (e.g. through remittances), and on development programs supporting return and reintegration of refugees.

> 22 UNRWA was established by General Assembly resolution 302 (IV) of December 8, 1949 and began operation on May 1, 1950, succeeding the United Nations Relief for Palestine Refugees, established in 1948. Palestinian refugees registered with UNRWA are excluded from the 1951 Convention, 1967 Protocol and UNHCR Statute. The UN General Assembly has repeatedly renewed UNRWA’s mandate, most recently extending it to June 30, 2017.

> 23 The UN General Assembly’s Resolution 181 of November 1947 proposing the partition of Mandatory Palestine into independent Arab and Jewish states, led to armed clashes between Arabs and Jews. When the British Mandate for Palestine expired on May 14, 1948, the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel was proclaimed. Neighboring Arab states of the Arab Republic of Egypt, Transjordan, Iraq and the Syrian Arab Republic invaded what had been Mandatory Palestine, leading to the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. At the end of the war, Israel controlled the area that Resolution 181 had proposed for the Jewish state and almost 60 percent of the area proposed for the Arab state. Transjordan annexed the remainder of the former British mandate and Egypt took control of the Gaza Strip.