What kind of living conditions do Palestinians have in the camps? Is there a difference between the availability of state protection for camp-based and non-camp-based Palestinians?
In a joint report published in 2022, the Badil Resource Center and the European Network on Statelessness wrote about refugee camps in Lebanon:
“The Lebanese Government does not allow construction of new refugee camps, which has led to serious overcrowding and poor conditions in existing camps.”
(Source: Badil Resource Center and European Network on Statelessness: “Palestinians and the Search for Protection as Refugees and Stateless Persons”, June 2022, p. 10)
In March 2022, UNICEF Lebanon reported on the poor living conditions within camps in Lebanon:
“Despite being recognised as vulnerable communities under the LCRP [Lebanon Crisis Response Plan], Palestinians in Lebanon are impacted less by its strategic interventions. Instead, they come under the jurisdiction of a separate system of governance and service provision (UNRWA), which is vastly underfunded. UNRWA continues to organise communities into camp-style arrangements or informal gatherings characterised by poor living conditions. Many inhabitants continue to face barriers to accessing basic health and social care, education, and employment opportunities. Poor access to essential services and income generating opportunities is a cause of tension among some PRL [Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon] communities who consider Palestinian refugees from Syria to be an additional burden on public goods.”
(Source: UNICEF Lebanon, “The situation of children and young people in the Lebanese crisis”, March 2022, p. 53)
A report by UNRWA on Palestinian refugees in Lebanon from 2022 outlined the issues regarding housing and basic services:
“The situation worsened in summer 2021 with the disruptions in the delivery of basic services such as electricity and water. This crisis is in fact putting the health, safety and education of the whole population at risk. The most vulnerable communities, including refugees, risk further marginalization and deprivation without a comprehensive social protection scheme to compensate for the losses. The hardship is particularly acute in communities that were already underprivileged, such as Palestine refugees, where unemployment and poverty have significantly increased.”
(Source: UNRWA, “Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon: Struggling to Survive”, January 2022, p. 3)
In their “Syria, Lebanon and Jordan Emergency Appeal 2022, and covering 1st and 2nd quarter of of 2022, UNRWA wrote:
“In Lebanon, UNRWA recorded the arrival of 409 PRS families from Syria during the first half of 2021, the highest number of arrivals since 2017. During the same period, PRS returns to Syria dropped. […] in Lebanon. As a result of the economic decline and COVID-19, the protection situation for many Palestine refugees has sharply deteriorated. Over the course of 2021, there has been an increase in interpersonal disputes escalating into violence in the camps as people have become more frustrated and desperate. Violence against women and children has continued to increase, closely linked to people’s mental well-being and their ability to constructively cope. Instances of conduct in breach of the rights of the child and human rights and humanitarian law have reportedly increased, including child labour, drug abuse amongst the youth and related participation of boys and girls in drug-distribution networks, as well as children’s involvement with armed groups.”
(Source: UNRWA, “Syria, Lebanon and Jordan Emergency Appeal 2022”, 18 January 2022, p. 16 citing UNRWA Protection Quarterly Monitoring Reports, Q1 and Q2, 2021)
The report continues to state:
“UNRWA provides daily environmental health services in all 12 Palestine refugee camps in Lebanon. These services include: (i) water supply management; (ii) wastewater and storm water maintenance; (iii) solid waste collection and final disposal; (iv) sweeping and cleaning of roads: and (v) regular vector control campaigns. Population growth in the camps, particularly with the arrival of PRS and Syrian refugees, has increased pressure on the provision of these services. Other challenges in 2021, including increased electricity cut-offs and the national fuel crisis, impacted on the daily operations of water plants in the camps, resulting in reduced water supplies to camp residents. The national solid waste crisis and closure of municipal/private landfill sites has put an additional strain on the solid waste management services provided by UNRWA.”
(Source: UNRWA, “Syria, Lebanon and Jordan Emergency Appeal 2022”, 18 January 2022, p. 42)
The French newspaper Le Monde published an article about a refugee camp in Lebanon and the situation of its inhabitants:
“However, people are just getting by: those who are eligible for UNRWA aid are getting 20 dollars per person every three months. “Without the financial support of relatives from abroad, people would die of hunger. Those who leave want a better economic situation, calm, stability and security. They’ve lost hope that their fate here would improve”
- attest the camp manager, who wanted to remain anonymous.”
ORIGINAL SOURCE:
Mais on y vivote : les habitants éligibles à l’aide de l’UNRWA, l’agence des Nations unies pour les réfugiés palestiniens, reçoivent 20 dollars par personne tous les trois mois. « Sans le soutien financier de proches à l’étranger, les gens mourraient de faim. Ceux qui partent veulent une meilleure situation économique, de la tranquillité psychologique, de la stabilité, de la sécurité. Ils ont perdu l’espoir que leur sort s’améliore », affirme un responsable du camp, qui souhaite rester anonyme. [Translation by Asylos.]
(Source: Le Monde, “Avec des réfugiés palestiniens revenus au Liban après l’enfer en Biélorussie : « On a les mêmes problèmes qu’avant, des dettes en plus »”, 26 November 2021)
UNRWA indicated that Palestine refugees in the camps experience a substandard living environment.
“Around 45 per cent of Palestine refugees reside in the 12 official Palestine refugee camps. The camps are overcrowded and are affected by substandard infrastructure, sanitation and housing conditions. In addition, camp inhabitants have limited opportunities to improve their housing conditions, and the movement of building materials into the camps requires the authorization of the Lebanese authorities. The remaining Palestine refugees reside in gatherings or cities in Lebanon.
(Source: Source: UNRWA: “Protection brief: Palestine refugees living in Lebanon”, September 2020, p. 2)
Based on a Whatsapp survey in Palestinian camps and gatherings in Lebanon, the UNDP stated in August 2020 that:
“In both the Wadi Zeineh gathering and Mieh Mieh camp, the need for medical and education facilities was overwhelming, as was the need for employment, infrastructure, and recreational space. In Mieh Mieh camp specifically, security checkpoints have restricted access to goods, services, and employment. In Wadi Zeineh gathering, residents were particularly frustrated by inadequate service provision (e.g., garbage collection by the municipality of Sibline).”
(Source: UNDP, “Nothing and Everything to Lose: Results from a Qualitative Whatsapp survey of Palestinian Camps and Gatherings in Lebanon”, August 2020, p. 10)
A collective of NGOs working with Palestinians in Lebanon made a joint submission to the Human Rights Council Universal Periodic Review in 2020 in which they stated amongst other issues that:
“13.3. Denying Palestinian refugees a healthy environment
Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon suffer from an inadequate infrastructure, including an overlap between the drinking water and sewage network, high humidity, water seepage, poor ventilation, and lack of sunlight in most houses in Palestinian camps and gatherings. In addition, waste collection sites are located in proximity to homes leading to an unhealthy environment and causing lung, chronic, and critical ailments. Medical and health aid and protection from diseases and epidemics is scarce and not available in a sustainable manner.”
(Source: Najdeh Association, Development Action Without Borders (Naba’a), Palestinian Human Rights Organization (PHRO) et al, “UPR 2020: Palestinian Refugee Rights in Lebanon”, July 2020, p. 9)
AlAraby, an international Arabic newspaper and website, wrote about the situation in camps:
“[…] more poverty, unemployment and poor environmental conditions within the camps prevented them from bringing in health supplies and building materials. With the increase in the number of family members, the Palestinians were forced to expand vertically within a fixed and unsafe geographical area. The average life expectancy in Shatila Camp is 4548 years, and dozens of refugees die annually from electrocution due to random electricity wiring in Burj al-Barajneh Camp.”[In-house translation. The author is a native Arabic speaker]
مهتلائاع دارفأ دايدزا عم نوينيطسلفلا ناك ،ءانب داومو ةيحصلا تادادملإا لاخدإ اهنع عنم يتلا تمايخلما نمض ةئّيسلا ةيئيبلا فورظلاو ةلاطبلاو رقفلا نم ديزم ةجيتنلاو ]…[ ةددملما ءابرهكلاب ًاقعص ًايونس ينئجلالا تاشرع تويمو ،ًاماع 45 لايتاش مّيخم في درفلا رمع طسّ وتم غلبو ،نمآ يرغ لكشبو ةتباث ةيفارغج ةعقر نمض ًاّيدومع عسوتلل نورطضي
.ةنجابرلا جرب ميخم في ًايئاوشع
(Source: AlAraby.co.uk, “What is left of the Palestinian asylum in Lebanon?” 28 November 2021)
UNRWA provided the following information in an emergency appeal progress report for Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria 2022:
“Living conditions, particularly for refugees in the Palestine refugee camps, have continued to deteriorate. The lack of electricity due to the fuel crisis has left camp streets in total darkness at night, limiting safe movement, particularly for women and children.”
(Source: UNRWA, “Syria, Lebanon and Jordan, 2022 Emergency Appeal Progress Report for the reporting period 1 January – 30 June 2022”, 3 November 2022, p. 11)
In its Protection Monitoring Report for the 1st quarter of the year 2022, UNRWA reported that:
“As poverty and desperation deepened, Palestinian refugee communities continued to report an increase in crime and drug use and trafficking. Thefts were widely reported, far more than in previous quarters, while reports continued of boys and young men, and, to a lesser extent, girls, being drawn into using drugs, and a smaller number into their sale. Drug use and dealing were reported to have increased significantly in Ein El Hilweh since the beginning of the year, where the issue had until then remained limited. Focal points in Central Lebanon Area and Tyre reported growing feelings of insecurity in the camps and those in Saida, Central Lebanon Area and the Beqaa reported that some residents did not feel safe outside the camps because of fear of rising crime in surrounding communities. Focal points in Tyre suggested that adolescent girls and young women, unable to afford transport, worried about sexual violence and harassment while walking to access education.”
(Source: UNRWA, “UNRWA Protection Monitoring Report – Quarter 1 (Q1) 2022”, 1 July 2022, p. 3)
48 The source refers to the ‘average life expectancy is 45 years’ here.
In a peer-reviewed article about Palestinians’ access to the labour market in Lebanon published in 2022, academics Samih Eloubeidi and Prof. Tina Kempin wrote:
“[...] About 63% of Palestinians live in twelve camps scattered across the country. The camps are described as ‘urban ghettos comprised of concrete blocks with corrugated roofs, narrow alleys with sewage and water pipes and covered with a maze of makeshift electric wires’. Overcrowding, unemployment, poor housing conditions, and low standard of living are common. About two-thirds of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon live in poverty, with higher poverty rates inside the camps. The camps perpetuate structural violence, limit social and economic integration, and have increased tensions and hostility towards Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. Palestinians are subjected to many human rights violations in their daily lives and do not enjoy the same kind of freedoms and rights as other foreigners living and working in the country. The confinement to camps, restricted freedom of movement, and little access to educational and income-generating opportunities over a span of decades and generations have left the community in destitute condition.”
(Source: Samih Eloubeidi & Tina Kempin Reuter/ 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 its series of country reports for 2021, the US Department of State wrote about Lebanon:
“E. STATUS AND TREATMENT OF INTERNALLY DISPLACED PERSONS
Fighting in 2007 destroyed the Nahr el-Bared Palestinian Refugee Camp, displacing approximately 30,000 residents, of whom an estimated 27,000 were registered Palestinian refugees. Many of the displaced resided in areas adjacent to the camp or in other areas of the country where services of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) were available. A comprehensive, multiyear plan to rebuild the Nahr el-Bared Camp began in 2008; the project was approximately 70 percent completed at year’s end. Remaining reconstruction was not fully funded, with a 60 billion Lebanese pound ($40 million at the official exchange rate) shortfall remaining. Of the 27,000 Palestinians originally displaced following the camp’s destruction, 14,706 had returned to newly reconstructed apartments in the camp as of June, and the temporary settlements that provided housing for them near Nahr el-Bared Camp were being decommissioned. As of September, two of the five plots had been closed and the land handed back to the respective landlords in their original condition, a third plot was almost fully vacated, and the two remaining plots were being dismantled.”
(Source: US Department of State (USDOS) “2021 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Lebanon”, Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, March 2022, p. 22)
The same source further stated that:
“Access to Basic Services: The government did not consider local integration of any refugees a viable solution.
The law considers UNRWA-registered Palestinian refugees to be foreigners. UNRWA provided health, education, social services, and emergency assistance to registered Palestinian refugees residing in the country. The amount of land allocated to the 12 official Palestinian refugee camps in the country has changed only marginally since 1948, despite a fourfold increase in the population. Consequently, most Palestinian refugees lived in overpopulated camps, some of which suffered heavy damage in past conflicts (see also section 2.e., Status and Treatment of Internally Displaced Persons). By agreement with the government, Palestinian security committees provided security for refugees in the camps.”
(Source: US Department of State (USDOS) “2021 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Lebanon”, Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, March 2022, p. 28)
The French newspaper Le Monde published an article about a refugee camp in Lebanon and the situation of its inhabitants:
“In Al-Jalil [a UN-recognised refugee camp situated in Lebanon’s Beqaa Valley], the misery is not as glaring as in other camps.
A Al-Jalil, la misère n’est pas aussi apparente que dans d’autres camps. Le lieu est calme, l’ambiance familiale. [Translation by Asylos.]
(Source: Le Monde, “Avec des réfugiés palestiniens revenus au Liban après l’enfer en Biélorussie : « On a les mêmes problèmes qu’avant, des dettes en plus »”, 26 November 2021)
UNRWA also released a short video in which residents from different camps shared their living conditions and personal struggles:
“I am a Palestine refugee living in Ein el-Hilweh camp. We can no longer go to a doctor or a hospital. We can no longer afford the fees. We cannot afford medicines. Our children go to school without pocket money. My heart aches. Feel our situation, give us your attention, feel for us, feel for our children.”
“My name is Salim Meshlawi from Beddawi camp in northern Lebanon. I am chronically ill and I have four children. Two of my sons are also sick. I am not working. I don’t have a job. My house is so humid. It’s my right as a human being to live a dignified life.”
(Source: UNRWA, “Hitting Rock Bottom – Palestine Refugees in Lebanon Risk Their Lives in Search of Dignity”, 21 October 2022)
A UNRWA survey on the social-economic situation of PRS in Lebanon also pointed out the challenging living conditions and increasing cost of living:
“Around one in ten PRS families (12.8 per cent) do not have heating in their home. It is difficult to balance the high costs incurred by using electricity with the alarming poverty levels within the PRS population. This may indicate access to informal electricity power supplies, more so in the poorer camp PRS population (56 per cent) compared to
43.3 percent of PRS living outside camps. Conversely, more PRS families living outside camps admit using no heating device at 13.9 percent compared to 11.7 percent of PRS camp families. Climatic factors influence choices. Because harsh winters require more heating in the Beqaa, PRS families living in this area predominantly use the cheaper diesel option (91.7 per cent) and only 3.6 per cent use electricity. […] Only one in ten families report not having access to enough water for washing and toilet purposes (8.9 per cent). PRS outside camps are slightly more affected by either insufficient drinking water (28.5 per cent) or washing/toilet water (9.2 per cent) than camp PRS (25.8 per cent and 8.6 per cent, respectively).”
“Most respondents perceive the PRS housing conditions’ quality as more or less low in terms of humidity, water leakage from roofs and walls, ventilation, and darkness/gloominess. The most prevalent defect is humidity/stains on the walls, which is reported by a majority of respondents as totally or significantly affecting the dwelling (58.9 percent of respondents). Around half of the respondents said their home was totally/largely prone to water leaks (48 per cent) or darkness and gloominess (48 per cent). Around one third of the dwellings (38.3 per cent) are claimed to suffer totally or largely from poor ventilation. In all respects, PRS inside camps are more critical of the quality of their dwelling than PRS outside camps, with differential percentage points ranging from +8.18 (humidity/ stains on the wall) to +2.85 (water leakages).”
(Source: UNRWA, “Socio-economic Survey on Palestine Refugees from Syria Living in Lebanon”, 28 April 2021, pp. 52-54)
In its Protection Monitoring Report for the second quarter of the year 2022, UNRWA reported that:
“The dire economic situation contributed to an uptick in reported levels of crime in the camp, particularly theft and robbery. These crimes have created an atmosphere of insecurity inside camps that inhibits the movement of some Palestinian refugees especially in central Lebanon and Tyre areas.”
(Source: UNRWA, “UNRWA Protection Monitoring Report – Quarter 2 (Q2) 2022”, 26 August 2022, p. 3)
The UN office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs wrote in April 2022 that:
“The environment in many camps is characterized by insecurity, with more interpersonal disputes escalating into armed violence in 2021 compared to previous years and occasional clashes between armed groups. There is limited access to the Lebanese justice system for all camp inhabitants, and while Palestinian women subjected to personal violence can obtain a variety of protective orders issued by the Lebanese courts, in practice the limited control exercised by Lebanese authorities within Palestinian refugee camps makes it impossible to ensure that such orders are upheld for women residing within camps.”
(Source: OCHA, “Increasing Humanitarian Needs in Lebanon, April 2022”, 14 April 2022, p. 27)
In June 2020 the Danish Immigration Service reported that:
“In Lebanon, UNRWA is able to provide services inside Palestinian camps, except when internal fighting takes place between factions. UNRWA’s inability to influence the Lebanese government’s systems hinders its service delivery, according to Albanese. The Lebanese authorities do not exert any authority in the camps. Akram stated that the camps in Lebanon are the most poverty-stricken of the ones UNRWA operates in, except for Gaza.”
(Source : Danish Immigration Service, “Palestinian Refugees Access to registration and UNRWA services, documents, and entry to Jordan” June 2020, p. 32)
In the internationally recognised book they published in 2020, legal scholars Dr. Francesca Albanese [currently Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory] and Prof Lex Takkenberg wrote:
“Of those reportedly in the country, between half and two-thirds reside in twelve official Palestine refugee camps located throughout the country and serviced by UNRWA, as well as in a number of informal ‘gatherings’ scattered around the country. Camps and gatherings are overcrowded, severely underserviced, and generally unhealthy. The Lebanese government does not exercise its authority or enforce its laws in the camps. The lack of an official authority responsible for public services and security creates an unsafe and insecure environment, with various types of violence and few avenues for redress. Since 2011, already overcrowded camps and gatherings have also become home to several thousand Palestinians from Syria as well as Syrian refugees.”
(Source: “Francesca P. Albanese and Lex Takkenberg/Oxford University Press, Palestinian Refugees in International Law”, May 2020, Chapter 3.3.1, pp. 272-273)
In the internationally recognised book they published in 2020, legal scholars Dr. Francesca Albanese [currently Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory] and Prof Lex Takkenberg wrote:
“Palestinians continue to be perceived as a threat to both the sovereignty and national identity of Lebanon. Further, despite the abrogation of the Cairo Agreement, there is still an implicit acceptance that the camps are off limits to Lebanese security forces, a ‘space of exception’ in the words of sociologist Sari Hanafi, a de facto extraterritorial zone effectively outside Lebanese jurisdiction. Common criminals and others have frequently sought refuge in the camps, further aggravating the living conditions of camp residents. The conflict over Nahr el Bared in 2007 was a dramatic illustration of this and the first instance in decades where the Lebanese army forced its way into the camps. Keeping the camps as ‘extraterritorial islands’ outside the scope of the law, has had a crippling effect both on the quality of living of camp dwellers – trapped in perpetual insecurity – and on the image of Palestinians within the Lebanese society. Jaber Suleiman, who has conducted extensive research on the situation of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, observes that dealing with them as a security and humanitarian question contributes to feeding a discourse of Palestinians representing a continuous threat to Lebanese security, which in turn leads to justify their discrimination and non-integration.
(Source: “Francesca P. Albanese and Lex Takkenberg/Oxford University Press, Palestinian Refugees in International Law”, May 2020, Chapter 3.3.2, p. 274)