Lebanese Law:

Lebanon is not a signatory to either the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees of 1951 or the 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees. In any event, the Convention would not apply to the Palestinian refugees because they “are at present receiving organs or agencies of the United Nations other than the United Nations High Commissioner of Refugees protection or assistance” (article 1, section D). In 1950, the Lebanese government created a special committee entitled the Central Committee for Refugee Affairs to administer the Palestinian presence in Lebanon. Pursuant to Legislative Decrees 42 and 927 of 31 March 1959, the government created the Department of Affairs of the Palestinian Refugees as an office within the Ministry of Interior.

These decrees give the Department responsibility for administering the Palestinian presence in Lebanon, including the right to designate the area occupied by each refugee camp, to maintain records of everyone who lives in the camps, and to document each refugeeās comings and goings. Refugees living outside the camps may move wherever they want within Lebanon, provided they inform the Department, while camp dwellers may move to other camps in Lebanon pending security clearance from the Department. Refugees must register their births, marriages, and changes of residence, along with other aspects of their social life. The decrees also give the Department the right to issue passports to the refugees, and to approve or disapprove financial aid transferred to them from abroad. In short, the decrees ensure that the Lebanese state has the capability to maintain a profile on each refugee to assess the security risk he/she may represent.

Significantly, the Department pledges merely to “contact” UNRWA to “ensure” that basic social services are being provided. In no way do the decrees require the Lebanese government, or the Department, to provide basic social services. That responsibility is left to UNRWA.

Employment:

Article 1 of the “Law Pertaining to the Entry Into, Residence In and Exit From Lebanon” (10 July 1962) defines Palestinian refugees, by default, as foreigners, despite the fact that many have been present in Lebanon for 50 years. As such, a Palestinian refugee in Lebanon may not work unless he/she has received a work permit, valid for a maximum of two years, from the Director-General of the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs.

According to the law, a permit may be revoked if a company fires a Lebanese worker and hires a refugee of equal capacity in his/her stead, or “if the enterprise fails to perform its obligation in training a Lebanese national to replace the foreigner.” While other nations have similar laws regarding foreign workers, such laws impose an insurmountable burden on the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon because they do not hold any form of citizenship and have no other country in which they can legally seek employment. Even the granting of such permits does not ensure the Palestinians the right to work in certain trades. For example, to be admitted to the Lebanese Bar, or to obtain work in a government agency, a person must be a Lebanese citizen for at least ten years.

The work permit requirement does not merely impose an onerous burden on Palestinian refugees looking for work in Lebanon. In actuality, it effectively rules out their prospects for employment, except within the narrow sphere of employment permissible without a work permit—UNRWA, the Palestinian Red Crescent (the PLOās medical relief service), NGOs and fields not requiring official permission (“agriculture, animal husbandry, or small enterprises within the camps,” according to the statute). In 1994, 4.86 percent of a potential workforce of 218,173 worked in these fields. A mere 0.14 percent of the workforce—an estimated 350 workers—obtained work permits. The remaining 95 percent were unemployed or temporarily employed in the informal sector, which is characterized by unsteady, low-paying, dangerous, and non-regulated work in such fields as construction and seasonal agriculture.

International Law:

In 1972, Lebanon became a party both to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. While not specific on the issue of the refugeeās right to work, the former recognizes “the right to work, which includes the right of everyone to gain his living by work which he freely chooses or accepts, and [that the states that are party to the covenant] will take appropriate steps to safeguard this right” (Article 6). The Convention guarantees the right to “work … [and] form and join trade unions” (Article 5). By virtue of becoming a party to the treaty, Lebanon has a duty, if not a legal obligation, to preserve and afford the right of employment to “everyone,” refugees included.

Social Security and Union Representation:

The few Palestinians who do hold work permits are not entitled to social security benefits, despite having to make social security payments. The denial of social security and other social services violates both the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (Article 4) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (Article 9).

Palestinians who possess work permits, who are at least 18 years old, and who do not have criminal records may join a trade union but cannot vote or be elected to any office. They may only elect a representative who is allowed to defend their interests to the union board.

Ensuring Poverty and Suffering:

The inability to work because of their “foreigner” status has subjected an estimated 80 percent of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon to poverty. Two other factors have contributed to the downward trend in their material conditions:

1. elimination of the Gulf countries as a potential place of employment following the 1991 Gulf War because of the PLOās siding with Iraq; and
   
2. cessation of PLO aid payments following the signing of the Declaration of Principles by Israel and the PLO in September 1993 (the so-called “Oslo Accord”). Since then, the PLO has cut off most forms of aid to Palestinian refugees outside of the West Bank and Gaza, preferring to direct its spending on its new self-rule areas. UNRWA, as well, has given proportionately less aid to refugees in Lebanon than to those in the West Bank and Gaza. Not allowed to use Lebanese government hospitals and other government health services, and suffering from diminished aid from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (because of the drop in PLO aid), the Palestinians are now wholly reliant upon UNRWA health services that are inadequate for the growing number of impoverished refugees.

Wadie Said is an attorney employed as a law clerk in the federal court system in New York. This Information Brief is based on his article, “The Palestinians in Lebanon: The Rights of the Victims of the Palestinian-Israeli Peace Process,” Columbia Human Rights Law Review 30/2 (Spring 1999). The above text may be used without permission but with proper attribution to the author and to the Palestine Center. This brief does not necessarily reflect the views of the Center for Policy Analysis on Palestine or The Jerusalem Fund.

This information first appeared in Information Brief No. 33, 24 May 2000.