Researcher Walaa Kayyal, a Palestinian living in Lebanon herself, was not aware of amendments to the work permit rules and indicated that the access to qualified positions have not changed for Palestinians in Lebanon:
“As far as I know, international NGOs or local NGOs (because this is where the educated Palestinians go for work since we cannotworkinthepublicsector)haveaquota.Sotheysaythat20%oftheiremployeescanbeforeigners.Foreignersinclude Palestinians. They can be Syrians, Iraqis, Americans, whatever... and within this quota, we can be employed. Usually, this quota for foreigners is quite low because they do not want to pay for too many work permits. We have tons of laws which are passed but not enforced in Lebanon. So even if the work permit is free, you still have some administrative fees.”
(Source: Walaa Kayyal, interview record, 31 October 2022)
On the contrary, 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] whom we interviewed for this report responded to our question about the 2010 amendment to the Lebanese Labor Law and Social Security Law of 2010 that:
“They will receive a work permit without paying anything. The [...] problem was in the National Social Security Fund, and we were about solving this. I was that time the team leader of the Minister of Labor. They don’t have to pay anything. The only problem was that the law obliged them to pay for the end-of-service indemnity, and this was in their interest but obliging them to pay for medical fund without benefiting it was an issue. End of service indemnity program within the National Social Security Fund to protect the rights when they finished their work, this was key. The only problem was that there was a debate between the Lebanese government at that time and the Lebanese Parliament also if they are obliged to pay for the medication program of the National Social Security Fund. And after this, there was a discussion between 2011 and 2012 to make sure to put an end for this contribution because they are not benefiting from this contribution and the medication program because UNRWA is taking care of this. Yet this kind of modification was not adopted because of the lack of governance in the country and the Lebanese-Palestinian dialogue committee.
[...] Yes, [it was in] 2010. But between 2016 and 2018, when there was a Lebanese-Palestinian dialogue-- and we succeeded in 2018 to issue a unified vision towards the Palestinian refugees issue in Lebanon, and I’m sure you saw it. It was issued by LPDC, and I was one of the facilitator of these dialogues. It was coordinated with the UNDP. It was led by the Lebanese Palestinian Dialogue Committee[...]. We succeeded within the Lebanese political stakeholders to approve a consensus that these Palestinian refugees should not pay for the medication program because they are not benefiting from it. [...] If you have other fields, they need a specific law adopted by the parliament like being a lawyer or an engineer, or. These are free orders, and they have bylaws approved by the parliament. We need another kind of modification here.[...] the Palestinian engineers and medicines, they are working. They are working on the black market. And this is bad, and they are accepting work in the black market.[...].”
(Source: Ziad El Sayegh, interview record, 31 October 2022)
In response to a question on the repercussions of working without a work permit, Palestinian researcher Walaa Kayyal responded that:
“No organisation will jeopardise their reputation or their relation with the government to employ you without a work permit. So it is either you have a work permit, or the person issue a work permit for themselves to be employed. But sometimes, and I’ve heard this through many research work that I have done that specifically pharmacies employ someone who is stateless without work permits. The Ministry of Public Health comes and conducts inspections and check-ups on all the pharmacies, specifically, the new established pharmacies or the pharmacies in villages. When this inspection occurs, the stateless employees would be smuggled out because they are not allowed to work without a permit. If you were caught, this is definitely a complete termination of your work contract. What exactly happens is up to the person who caught you. They can raise an allegation and it can go to court. Or they can just say,
«You’re not allowed to work anymore.» and terminate your contract. But then again, the owner of the pharmacy can tell you, «come tomorrow. It’s fine.» They don’t do regular checkups. It’s very rarely that they go and they catch people. But it happens because I’ve heard specifically from stateless individuals who are educated that when the ministry comes for any checkup or they come to collect taxes, they would hide in the toilet.”
(Source: Walaa Kayyal, interview record, 31 October 2022)
Katherine Harbord, a lecturer in human rights whom we interviewed for this report in October 2022 also shared her knowledge on the consequences of working without a work permit for Palestinians and employers:
“This is something that has previously come up about a year, a year and a half ago. And my understanding is that the main consequences of not having a permit-- of course, there are potentially legal consequences, a fine. It’s an offence. My understanding is that it carries kind of a statutory fine in the same way if you’re caught speeding or something, you have whatever the fine is. So there are consequences. But the more important consequences, I think, are actually perhaps the unintended ones. So if somebody doesn’t have a permit, they don’t have the protections inscribed in labour law. They’re open to exploitation, unscrupulous employers, those kinds of ancillary problems rather than justifying itself. It’s my understanding too that employers, if they have an illegal worker, they also are subject to a fine. So the gentleman I spoke to did say it was quite difficult to find a good job without a work permit. Finding work is easy, but employers aren’t generally willing to take the risk for higher-status jobs and roles. Understandably. The man that I was speaking to had involvement-- or had previously had involvement with the trade union movement, for example. So it may be that he was also more aware than the average person of the situation because of his interest in labour laws and labour relations.”
(Source: Katherine Harbord, interview record, 13 October 2022)
Also Katherine Harbord, a lecturer in human rights specialised in the Middle East whom we interviewed for this report in October 2022 said that Palestinians still had to pay for work permits:
“I spoke to a Palestinian in Lebanon towards the end of last year who told me that they do still require a work permit, it’s like an authorisation, it’s not something you have to physically pay for. But in practice, because of the problems of weak state structures, in practice often there is a charge attached or you can’t receive it without paying a fee. No, fee is the wrong word. I was trying to think of a polite way to say bribe, but I mean bribe.”
(Source: Katherine Harbord, interview record, 13 October 2022)
In a series of written responses to questions sent by Asylos for this report, Dr. Jasmin Lilian Diab, Director of the Institute for Migration Studies at the Lebanese American University indicated in October 2022 that the aforementioned decision by Minister for Labour, Moustapha Bayram, to allow Palestinians to work in union-regulated professions, was “never enforced, and reportedly revoked.”
(Source: Dr. Jasmin Lilian Diab, written communication with Asylos, 6 October 2022)
In its 2021 Annual Operational Report, UNRWA reported:
“Courses delivered at the STC [Siblin Training Centre] offered Palestine refugee youth the skills required to successfully compete in a challenging job market, especially important in the context of Lebanon’s economic crisis. UNRWA has, however, observed a decline in enrollment figures for the 2021/22 academic year, with 33 PRS students enrolled and an overall student population of 718 trainees. This may be due to the fact that more young people have been forced into leaving their studies to find unskilled work to support their families. To counter this, UNRWA will continue to reach out / promote vocational training and will also offer short-term courses that better respond to new emerging skills required in the employment market”.
(Source: UNRWA, “Annual Operational Report 2021” 27 October 2022, pp. 120-121)
UN women noted that changes in Lebanese law improved the rights of Palestinians in Lebanon in principles, however, “significant” gaps remain:
“Changes to Lebanese law in 2005 and 2010 have, in principle, improved the rights of Palestinians in Lebanon (PRLs) to access formal employment and strengthened related social protection mechanisms, giving them partial access to the National Social Security Fund. However, significant gaps remain. ”
(Source: UN Women “European Union Sector Specific Gender Analysis: An in-depth sectoral examination of feminist and women’s rights issues in Lebanon”, July 2021, p. 28)