UNRWA reports that it is struggling to meet targets for identifying Palestinians with ‘specific protection issues’:
“In 2021, the Agency’s Protection and Neutrality Team in Lebanon continued to identify people with specific protection issues, which were mainly related to difficulties in accessing services. Underachievement against the target reflected: (i) restricted in-person contact due to COVID-19 operating conditions; and (ii) staff only recording cases that required significant follow up, with the result that less complex cases often went unrecorded. The team is reviewing protocols for reporting against this indicator in 2022.”
(Source: UNRWA, “Annual Operational Report 2021” 27 October 2022, p. 123)
A 2022 OCHA report gives a summary of the four different groups of Palestinian refugees residing in Lebanon:
“[…]1. Palestine Refugees in Lebanon (PRL) who are descended from those who lived in Palestine during the period 1 June 1946 to 15 May 1948, and who lost both home and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 conflict; 2. Those not registered with UNRWA who were displaced as a result of the 1967 and subsequent hostilities, and who are registered with the Lebanese Government (referred to as “Not-Registered” or NR by UNRWA) (numbers unknown);
3. Palestinian refugees who lack identity documents and are neither registered with UNRWA nor with the Lebanese authorities (referred to as “Non-IDs”), likely to be an estimated 5000; and 4. Palestinian refugees from Syria (PRS), who have arrived in Lebanon since 2013 and who may or may not have regular status in Lebanon.”
(Source: OCHA,“Increasing Humanitarian Needs in Lebanon, April 2022”, 14 April 2022, footnote 132, p. 26)
In a peer-reviewed article about Palestinians’ access to the labour market in Lebanon published in 2022, academics Samih Eloubeidi and Prof. Tina Kempin gave an estimate of the number of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon:
“Close to half a million Palestinian refugees are registered in Lebanon, with about 180,000–260,000 estimated as permanent residents who have lived in the country since their displacement from Palestine in 1948.24 The rest of Palestinian refugees are from elsewhere, including about 42,000 additional Palestinian refugees from Syria that have arrived in Lebanon since 2011.”
(Source: Samih Eloubeidi & Tina Kempin/ The International Journal of Human Rights: “Restricting access to employment as a human rights violation: a case study of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon“, 11 April 2022, p. 3)
In an academic chapter on family dispersion among Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and Syria published in 2021, geographer Dr. Kamel Doraï wrote that today “Lebanon hosts the majority of Palestinian refugees from Syria who are fleeing war in Syria.” and that:
“In 2011, when the Syrian crisis began, many families gradually left Syria to seek asylum in neighboring countries. Palestinian refugees in Syria were gradually been caught up in the conflict and some of them were forced into exile. While most neighboring countries closed their borders very rapidly to this group of refugees, Lebanon adopted a more flexible approach (Doraï & Al Husseini, 2013). More than 50,000 Syrian Palestinians have found asylum in Lebanon. The geography of this exile is singular. “Lebanon is one of the countries in the region where the legal status of Palestinians is most precarious. More than half of the Palestinians in Lebanon still live in one of 12 refugee camps, where socio-economic conditions are very difficult. This polarization of Palestinian migration from Syria to these areas may, however, be explained by the historical ties between Palestinian refugees in both countries (Doraï, 2015). Forced migration related to the current conflict in Syria is based on forms of mobility developed since the 1948 exodus (Nakba in Arabic).”
24 UNRWA, ‘Where We Work: Lebanon’
(Source: Kamel Doraï, “From Family Dispersion to Asylum-Seeking: Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon and Syria”, 2021, p. 47)
The author further reported that:
“The conflict that began in 2011 pushed Palestinians in Syria back into a stateless situation and forced them to seek asylum abroad.
[...] In 2018, a total of 120,000 of them fled Syria, according to UNRWA figures, heading mainly to countries in the region (Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Egypt) as well as Europe. However, in Lebanon, this number decreased from more than 50,000 in 2015 to 31,000 in 2018, due to re-emigration, mainly towards European countries or a return to Syria.”
(Source: Kamel Doraï, “From Family Dispersion to Asylum-Seeking: Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon and Syria”, The Syrian Conflict: Towards a New Exile for Palestinians, 2021, pp. 53-54)
The same source stated:
“Like their counterparts who had settled in Lebanon decades before, just over half of the recently arrived Palestinian refugees from Syria were concentrated in one of the 12 existing refugee camps. Others settled in neighborhoods or rural informal settlements where there was a strong Palestinian presence. The geography of the Palestinian presence in Lebanon was not significantly modified by the new arrivals, with the exception of new settlements in the Beqaa Valley, which is close to Syrian border and a first stopping point for those who left Damascus by the main road that connects it to Lebanon. There was a densification of populated areas by Palestinians and a polarization of migration towards the outskirts of the main Lebanese coastal cities. This geography of asylum is based on the existing family relationships between the two groups in Lebanon and Syria. When the conflict escalated, the first Palestinians who sought refuge in Lebanon were those who had relatives there.”
(Source: Kamel Doraï, “From Family Dispersion to Asylum-Seeking: Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon and Syria”, The Syrian Conflict: Towards a New Exile for Palestinians, 2021, p. 55)
In its Protection brief, UNRWA analysed the situation of Palestinian refugees from Syria in Lebanon:
“• In 2011, at the onset of the Syrian conflict, the General Security Office (GSO) initially facilitated access of PRS to Lebanon. However, these measures were never formalised by the GSO and in August 2013 and May 2014 facilitating measures were removed and additional restrictions imposed. Restrictions on Syrian arrivals were in January 2015. Since then, entry visas are only granted at the border to PRS with either a verified embassy appointment in Lebanon or a flight ticket and visa to a third country. Most are issued with a 24-hour transit visa. In addition, a very limited number of PRS can secure a visa for Lebanon by obtaining prior approval from the GSO, which requires a sponsor in Lebanon and cannot be processed at border posts.
• Some PRS have sought to enter Lebanon through irregular border crossings, placing them at additional risk of exploitation and abuse both during the crossing and once they arrive in Lebanon.
• Irregular entry into Lebanon is an obstacle to later regularising one’s legal status and while several memoranda have been issued by the GSO since October 2015, allowing for a free-of charge renewal of residency documents, persons who have entered irregularly are exempted. A considerable number of PRS are therefore still unable to regularise their stay in Lebanon. In addition, lack of awareness has meant that some PRS have not renewed their documents and are therefore considered by the authorities as illegally staying in Lebanon.
• PRS children who turned 15 years old in Lebanon and who do not have a passport or national identity card are granted a temporary residency document by the Lebanese authorities if they present an individual status record that was issued in the last two years by the Syrian authorities in Syria (GAPAR) and officially stamped by the Lebanese Embassy in Syria and the Ministries of Foreign Affairs in Syria and Lebanon.
• The General Directorate of General Security announced on 17 July 2020 that Arab citizens and foreigners who entered Lebanon irregularly and those whose legal residency and work permit have expired are able to regularise their status between 31/07/2020 to 31/10/2020. However, regularisation is only possible by securing a sponsor and a work permit. Hence, the impact on PRS is expected to be minimal.
• The lack of legal residency means that, particularly in the South of Lebanon where the Lebanese Army controls entry and exit to camps, PRS often do not leave the camps in which they are living nor enter them if they live outside, restricting their movement out of fear of arrest, detention and deportation, which poses challenges to accessing basic services and justice functions. A survey conducted during the first half of 2020 indicated that 34 per cent of PRS in Lebanon do not hold valid residency documents. Out of this group, 79 per cent reported that their mobility was constrained.
• On 24 April 2019, a series of decisions announced by the High Defence Council in Lebanon resulted in stricter enforcement of national laws and the promulgation of a new regulation affecting refugees. The decision to deport Syrians who entered the country illegally after 24 April 2019, coupled with departure orders issued to Syrians and PRS without valid residency who entered before that date, has resulted in an increased fear of deportation among PRS. UNRWA recorded the first cases of PRS deportations, including of two women and four minors, in late 2019 and early 2020. However, deportations were also put on hold due to COVID-19 related border closures.
• In recent years, UNRWA has also recorded a number of spontaneous returns by PRS families and individuals to Syria. In 2019, UNRWA recorded the return to habitual residence of 2240 PRS individuals. The numbers for 2020 were significantly lower, including due to COVID-19 containment measures.”
The same source also addressed the condition of non-ID Palestinians in Lebanon:
“There are an estimated 4,000 Non-ID Palestinians in Lebanon. These are Palestinians who began to arrive in Lebanon in the 1960s and do not hold formal valid identification documents recognized by the Government of Lebanon (GoL). They are not registered as Palestine refugees with UNRWA in Lebanon and are not recognized by the GoL as they do not have valid legal status in the country. Without documentation and legal status in Lebanon, Non-ID Palestinians face restrictions on movement, risk detention and face severe obstacles in completing civil registration procedures. This situation has acute humanitarian consequences, in particular limiting access to public services from Lebanese educational and medical services, bank accounts and access to justice and formal employment. They are also denied the possibility to travel abroad. […]”.
(Source: UNRWA: “Protection brief: Palestine refugees living in Lebanon”, September 2020, p. 2)
The numerous statuses of Palestinians in Lebanon were covered in the widely acclaimed book that legal scholars Dr. Francesca Albanese (currently the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory) and Prof. Lex Takkenberg published in 2020:
“Registered Palestine refugees
Most Palestinians in Lebanon are ‘1948 refugees’, including descendants, and are registered as ‘Palestine refugees’ with UNRWA. As indicated earlier, out of almost half a million, less than half remain in Lebanon. They are also registered with DPRA [Directorate of Political Affairs and Refugees] and hold a DPRA-issued ‘Identification Card for Palestine Refugee’, which officially confirms their legal residence in Lebanon.
While registration gives Palestine refugees legal residence, a certain freedom of movement within Lebanon and eligibility for a TDPR [Travel Documents for Palestinian Refugees] with a validity of up to five years, in practice, they remain foreigners in the country. As foreigners, they experience restrictions, embedded in law and practice, in many areas of life, including with respect to employment, social security, property ownership, and mobility both within (in and out of the camps) and outside the country, as well as access to public services such as housing, education, (p.214) and health and other rights reserved for Lebanese citizens. Palestine refugees are also considered a ‘special category of foreigners’ not benefitting from specific refugee rights nor being allowed to naturalise, and subject to entry and exit controls that are tightened during periods of insecurity.”
[…] ‘Non-Registered’ Palestinian refugees
Approximately 35,000 refugees from Mandate Palestine and their descendants (i.e. ‘1948 refugees’), are not registered with UNRWA in Lebanon. They are often referred to as ‘NR’.307 Their lack of registration with UNRWA has various causes: they may have not been in need of humanitarian assistance in 1948, and hence not met UNRWA’s
registration and eligibility criteria; they may have taken refuge outside UNRWA’s area of operations in 1948 and moved to Lebanon later on; or they may have arrived to Lebanon not in connection with the 1948 events (e.g. 1967, 1970). They are nonetheless registered with the Lebanese authorities and as such they hold the same DPRA- issued Identification Cards issued to registered Palestine refugees. The majority of them have a proof of nationality document from the Palestinian embassy in Lebanon. Lebanese authorities treat them similarly to UNRWA-registered refugees, except that their travel document is valid for up to three years instead of five years for those registered with UNRWA. UNRWA began assisting some of these refugees from 2004 onwards on (p. 217) the ground that they are also refugees from Palestine and receive no assistance from the Lebanese authorities.