Listen to an interview with Ahmed Abdel Majeed, a stateless Palestinian born and raised in Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp in southern Lebanon, who was deported from Montreal Canada in November 2003. In Montreal Ahmed was an active member of the Coalition Against the Deportation of Palestinian Refugees, a group of Palestinians in Montreal organizing against deportation by Canadian immigration authorities.

This powerful interview provides Ahmed’s perspective on the present day realities facing Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and reflections on his experience of deportation from Canada. Each year Canadian authorities deports thousands of refugees, without regard for the major human impact on each individual who experiences deportation & recognition of the devastating social, economic & political realities from which refugees have fled.

This interview was recorded in the summer of 2005 in Lebanon, where today Ahmed resides living in Ein el-Hilweh, with an estimated 80 000 other stateless Palestinians in the country’s largest refugee camp located on the outskirts of the southern Lebanese city of Saida. Ein el-Hilweh is a stark example of the lived reality of persecution that Palestinian refugees face today in Lebanon.

Ein el-Hilweh is a Palestinian ghetto, a social and economic prison for tens of thousands of refugees displaced by the creation of the state of Israel. The entire camp and its thousands of residents are restricted to approximately 2 square kilometers and completely surrounded by Lebanese military check-points, which deny Palestinians freedom of movement.