Walaa Kayyal, a researcher living as a Palestinian in Lebanon herself, commented directly on the aforementioned prerequisites to apply for a travel document when interviewed for this report by Asylos in October 2022:
“Palestinians in Lebanon; they don’t have a passport.[...]The passport is issued by the GSO, the General Security Office and there are definitely requirements to apply for the travel document because we don’t have a passport. [...] You should apply with your ID, which is a blue ID as they call it, and the UNRWA card. One important thing to mention here is that even the GSO office for the Lebanese is different from the Palestinians. The Palestinians have a separate office even for issuing travel documents. We do not interact with the Lebanese. And definitely, the papers required are different for the Lebanese and the Palestinians. Also, the duration of when you have to renew your passport is different. For example, a Lebanese person can renew his or her passport for 10 years. For Palestinian it’s up to 5 years. It’s either 1 year, 3 years, or 5 years. For Lebanese, it’s 1 year, 3 years, 5 years, or 10 years. Also we did not have biometric passport. I think since three, four years ago we started to have biometric passports, the Palestinian travel documents are also biometric. The Palestinian travel document has the migrant sign on it, two oblique lines. We have this on our travel document just to identify us as migrants and not citizens. Before the passport was biometric, the Lebanese used to have a navy blue colour for their passport and it’s smaller in size, while the Palestinians used to have a larger size of the passport and it was brown. After they became biometric, it became the same size but the Lebanese passport is navy blue and the Palestinian passport is [...]a lighter blue colour. This is something one has to know about Lebanon: They have to discriminate in any way. You can see these discriminatory actions without words, they have to differentiate Lebanese from Palestinians in any way possible.
[...] If you do not submit all your complete papers, they simply reject your order. Because they review the papers in front of you and say ‘if you don’t complete your file, we are not going to at the first place to apply for you to issue a travel document’.
(Source: Walaa Kayyal, interview record, 31 October 2022)
Mr Ziad El Sayegh, Executive Director of the Civic Influence Hub in Beirut and former Policy and Communication Advisor to the Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee [a Lebanese inter-ministerial government body formed in November 2005 to implement the policies of the Lebanese government towards Palestinian refugees in Lebanon] relativised the difficulties faced by Palestinians to move within the country:
“This is not to say that the problem is solved. No. But there is a serious essay [essai] within the DSG, Directorate of General Security to try to find a transitional solution until-- and this is the role of the Lebanese Palestinian Dialogue Committee. I don’t know if they are following this now. It seems to me this is not the case. And of course, this is paralysing the freedom of movement for travel only. But within the country, it is not paralysing anything. They can move within the country. They can move within the country, and there is a constructive collaboration between the Palestinian authorities, stakeholders in the country, and also the Lebanese government, and also the Lebanese military and security forces.
[...] I don’t know how many [Palestinian refugees in Lebanon who are not registered with the DPAR nor with UNRWA who managed to access a travel document], but I knew that some of these people succeed in terms of an official
request to the Directorate of the General Security in the country. They succeeded in getting a travel document, but I don’t know how many there are.”
(Source: Ziad El Sayegh, interview record, 31 October 2022)
Katherine Harbord, a lecturer in human rights specialised in the Middle East whom we interviewed for this report in October 2022 shared her knowledge of the attribution of travel documents based on an interview with an agent of the Lebanese Ministry of International Affairs:
“I last spoke about this perhaps two years ago with somebody that I knew who worked at the Ministry of Internal Affairs, who worked at a fairly low level but processing these kinds of queries, who wanted to remain anonymous. Without pointing me to a legal paragraph, what they said confirmed that applying for travel documents requires an ID card and an UNRWA registration card. The problem is of course that not all stateless Palestinians are necessarily eligible to be registered with UNRWA. So if you are UNRWA-registered and you have a Lebanese ID, then you are eligible to apply for a travel document. If you already have a travel document from somewhere else, for example, an Egyptian travel document, of course, you aren’t eligible for a Lebanese travel document. You must travel on your Egyptian equivalent or your Jordanian equivalent or whatever. So it’s a solution purely for Lebanese registered, UNRWA-registered stateless Palestinians with no other nationality or any kind of travel documents. It also isn’t automatic. So just presenting your ID card and your UNRWA registration card doesn’t entitle you to receive these documents, but it entitles you to be considered to receive these documents. So it’s possible and assuming there are no security issues for this individual, it’s my understanding that these are granted, but it’s certainly not automatic. So it’s a very small subset of 1948 refugees and their descendants only. If you’re a 1967 refugee, it’s technically possible, but my understanding from this contact was that ordinarily, these people aren’t able to move freely out of Lebanon because it’s very difficult for them to register with UNRWA. Difficult to impossible.”
(Source: Katherine Harbord, interview record, 13 October 2022)
When asked to comment on the possibility for Palestinians to obtain travel documents in Lebanon, Jordanian Political Economist Riad Al Khouri who was interviewed for this report in October 2022 spoke about the difficulty for Palestinian refugees and Palestinian refugees from Syria to obtain travel documents:
“[...] the procedures for these people, whether they are Palestinian refugees in Lebanon or Palestinian refugees from Syria who came to Lebanon at various times over the past few years, the procedure is difficult and complicated. And in any case, once you have this travel document, there is not much you can do with it in terms of travelling without a visa or obtaining a visa to travel.
[...] Before you obtain the document, there is a procedure to go through which can be time-consuming, and otherwise, it is not easy. It is not a useful document.”
(Source: Riad Al Khouri, interview record, 7 October 2022)
Based on confidential sources as well as the 2020 Universal Periodic Review and a 2016 Fact-Finding Mission by the Finnish Immigration Service, the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated in 2021 that:
“4.2.2 Travel document
Adult PRL men and women can apply for a travel document from the GS [General Security]. This requires an ID card and UNRWA registration card. Palestinians can use the travel document to enter and leave Lebanon and obtain visas from other countries. Previously, this travel document was a passport-sized paper booklet with a dark blue cover with the logo of the Lebanese cedar tree with the text ‘document voyage’.) and ‘Palestinian refugee’ (lajien falistiniya). Since 2016, the travel document has been biometric while retaining the same information as before.
[...] PRL who do not have a registration with both the DPAR and UNRWA, and whose father is only registered with the GS, can apply for a travel document. The application will then be considered. Palestinians registered by Lebanon from the ‘67 group’ who are not registered with UNRWA may be able to receive a laissez-passer. This document is brown in color and is valid for one year. A source indicates that after acquiring a third nationality, i.e. not Palestinian or Lebanese, PRL are no longer entitled to the travel documents issued by the Lebanese authorities. This information has not been confirmed by other sources.” (In-house translation. The translator is a native Dutch speaker)
“4.2.2 Reisdocument
Meerderjarige PRL-mannen en –vrouwen kunnen een reisdocument aanvragen bij de GS. Hiervoor is een ID- kaart en UNRWA-registratiekaart nodig. Palestijnen kunnen het reisdocument gebruiken voor het in-en uitreizen van Libanon en het verkrijgen van visa van andere landen Voorheen was dit reisdocument een papieren boekje van paspoortformaat met een donkerblauwe omslag met het logo van de Libanese cederboom met de tekst ’reisdocument’ (document voyage) en’Palestijnse vluchteling’ (lajien falistiniya). Sinds 2016 is het reisdocument biometrisch met behoud van dezelfde informatie als voorheen.
[...] PRL die zelf geen registratie hebben bij zowel de DPAR en UNRWA, en waarvan de vader alleen bij de GS is geregistreerd, kunnen een aanvraag doen voor een reisdocument. De aanvraag wordt dan in overweging genomen. Door Libanon geregistreerde Palestijnen uit de ‘groep van 1967’ die niet zijn geregistreerd bij UNRWA, kunnen mogelijk een laissez-passer ontvangen. Dit document is bruin van kleur en heeft een geldigheidsduur van één jaar. Een bron geeft aan dat na het verkrijgen van een derde nationaliteit, dus geen Palestijnse of Libanese, PRL geen recht meer hebben op de reisdocumenten uitgegeven door de Libanese autoriteiten. Deze informatie is niet bevestigd door andere bronnen.”
(Source: Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “Thematisch ambtsbericht Palestijnen in Libanon”, January 2021, pp. 22-23)