The United Nations announced recently that 71,000 Palestinians have now fled Syria for the comparative safety of Lebanon. The vast majority of these second-time refugees have taken shelter in the already-impoverished Palestinian refugee camps of Lebanon, where their arrival is, without surprise, having a huge political and humanitarian impact.

To fully understand the significance of this mass migration, we need to consider the dire conditions in these often-forgotten camps, which shelter most of the approximately 450,000 Palestinians registered in Lebanon. The 12 official camps encapsulate the impossible situation of the Palestinians in Lebanon, where they comprise about 10 percent of the population but are deprived of basic civil and legal rights.

The vast majority of Palestinians in Lebanon are stateless and therefore lack the protection of any government, meaning that they cannot claim the same entitlements as other foreigners. Palestinian refugees are barred from working in more than 20 professions and are not allowed to own property. They are deprived of access to public health and educational facilities.

While the UN agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA, provides education for Palestinian refugee children through its camp schools, these are usually under-resourced, overcrowded and operating on a double-shift system.

There is very high unemployment in the camps, as an estimated 63 percent of the working age population is jobless (“Palestinian refugees in Lebanon,” American Near East Refugee Aid, June 2012 [PDF]). Many are left in poverty, dependent on aid and services from UNRWA. When they need medical attention, they must pay to use Lebanese hospitals and often cannot afford the required treatment.

Unsafe

The physical geography of the camps reflects this grim reality. They are notoriously unsafe, impoverished and neglected. Anyone walking through must avoid puddles of sewage and dangling electrical cables to negotiate their way through pathways so narrow they sometimes require groups to walk in single file.

The Lebanese government has no formal jurisdiction in the camps, meaning that their municipal functions are carried out by semi-official popular committees, who collect financial contributions in return for services. The committees’ effectiveness is hindered by their lack of resources and internal political divisions, with inter-factional disputes common (“Nurturing instability: Lebanon’s Palestinian refugee camps,” International Crisis Group, 19 February 2009 [PDF]).

Most of all, the camps are typified by overcrowding. As Palestinians are not allowed to expand their shelters outwards, they have dealt with the rapid population growth in the camps by building upwards, usually constructing precarious floors on top of each other.

The result is an extreme population density in very cramped conditions. In Burj al-Barajne camp in Beirut, nearly 20,000 Palestinian refugees live in one square kilometer. Ein al-Hilwe, the largest Palestinian camp in Lebanon, has an even greater population density, with an almost unbelievable 80,000 people inhabiting 1.25 square kilometers of land.

Ten in a room

The camps are now absorbing an additional 71,000 people, with little or no extra provisions to accommodate the increased need. As I observed on a recent visit to Lebanon, the Palestinian community has shown incredible altruism in opening up their homes to host those arriving from Syria.

But, of course, the community has nowhere near sufficient resources to provide what is needed. As a result, there are cases of more than ten persons living in one room, and of refugees sleeping on the streets and using public taps to wash.

Those fleeing Syria have left most of their belongings behind and are almost entirely dependent on aid and goodwill. Only 7 percent have been able to find employment in Lebanon, which is usually casual, short-term and very low-paid, according to UNRWA. Many are also traumatized by the experience and effects of war.

The American charity ANERA estimates that 96 percent of Palestinian refugees from Syria who fled to Lebanon have been directly exposed to violence, and 21 percent have lost a family member or close friend to the conflict (“Palestinian Refugees from Syria in Lebanon: A Needs Assessment,” March 2013). The ordeal of exile is worsened by the fact that Syria has historically provided some of the best conditions for Palestinians anywhere in the region, with no restrictions on their rights and equal social status with Syrian citizens.

Discriminatory system

Adapting to life under Lebanon’s explicitly discriminatory system has been an additional burden for those already living through a second displacement.

Unsurprisingly, this escalating refugee crisis has placed a huge strain on the resources of those humanitarian organizations serving the Palestinian camps in Lebanon. Their role is particularly vital given the Lebanese government’s absence from these spaces. Aid agencies now face the dilemma of how to effectively assist Palestinians arriving from Syria without neglecting the needs of the existing community in Lebanon.

As the closest thing that many Palestinians have to a government, UNRWA is implementing emergency relief programs for refugees fleeing Syria for Lebanon and Jordan. The agency has launched an urgent appeal asking for $65 million to cover the costs of this work, but has so far only received $25 million (“In Lebanon, UN officials get first-hand look at plight of Palestinian refugees from Syria,” 15 July 2013).

Once again, the Palestinians’ statelessness lies at the heart of the problem — with no government to represent or advocate for them, they are reliant on the goodwill of other states, for whom they are rarely the priority, or on UNRWA, which has been running on a deficit for the last three decades. As the agency is almost entirely dependent on contributions from donor states, it cannot provide the robust representation so sorely needed.

This crisis is ultimately central to the Palestinian struggle. The flight of Palestinian refugees from Syria can be best understood within the wider context of ongoing Palestinian exile, displacement and insecurity.

The dire consequences of the Syrian war have highlighted the Palestinians’ vulnerable position and underlined the precariousness that characterizes their situation across the region. The Palestinians of Syria and Lebanon will only realize all their rights when Palestine itself is truly free.

Anne Irfan holds a masters degree in Middle Eastern history and currently works for the nongovernmental organization Medical Aid for Palestinians.

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• Palestinian refugees in Lebanon
• Palestinian refugees in Syria
• refugees
• Lebanon
• UNRWA
• International Crisis Group

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Comments

Palestinian refugees

Permalink Mohamed replied on Wed, 07/31/2013 - 16:35

Dear Anne,

Unless the refugees are organised into a popular struggle that affirms the inalienability of the right of return for the individual they will be shafted. The Geneva agreement provides for the symbolic return of 100 000 refugees. The millions do not feature anywhere in any popular programme. The position of refugees must be tied in with the struggle for social justice of Arab Israelis against Apartheid, the struggle to free the prisoners, the illegitimacy of the occupation, the right of return for the diaspora. Then that has to feed into the daily struggles against the wall, house demolitions, check points etc. There must be a broad bread-and-butter struggle as well as a strategic vision into which the solidarity movement can play a role. There must also be a role for conscientious objectors in Israel who refuse to serve in the military. There are also other committed Israeli Jews like Pappe who have earned the right as comrades in a struggle for social justice, dignity and bread.

This requires a view of who is Asha'ab al-Falasteen. It has to be more than Fatah and Hamas. It must include a broad popular movement with grassroots structures organising in every theatre of struggle. Because these are not in place we have men in suits trying to sell Palestine for a dime.

It is not too late but the door might only be ajar still. Those men in suits they are benefiting from collaborating in the colonial dispossession of the refugees. Who is prepared to step up and build this type of programme. Ot should we continue to indulge Fatah and Hamas in a Punch and Judy show? Hamas I belive to be less culpable but they share responsibility for the mess. Gaza should be a platform for freedom not the consolidation of a Bantusan or native reserve.

"Stateless"

Permalink Martin O'Brien replied on Sun, 08/11/2013 - 13:42

The Palestine refugees are not stateless. They are citizens, living - and dying - in enforced exile from their land. This land is allowed by the countries of the world, in violation of the most fundamental principles of the United Nations Charter, to be controlled by "governments" elected by illegal immigrants and without the participation of these millions of exiles. The problem, therefore, lies much more in the deep-rooted immorality of governments such as those of the UK, USA, Russia, France, Germany, China, than in the governments of "Israel". These other governments want "Israel" to carry on existing in the same way that they have allowed and encouraged it to exist since 1948 and even before then. How else could "Israel" have survived for so long in such total contradiction to the tenets of the United Nations Charter/the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?