Lebanon
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Lebanon is a small country on the Mediterranean Sea, bordered by
Syria and Israel. After the declaration of the State of Israel in
1948, Lebanon became home to an estimated 100,000 Palestinian
refugees. Since then that figure has grown and is estimated at over
400,000, and Lebanon also hosts Iraqi refugees and has a
significant population of internally displaced people.
The country has suffered through decades of civil war that ended
in the early 1990s. Internal conflicts in and out of the refugee
camps have continued to destabilise the small country once
considered the Paris of the Middle East.
AVI's program in Lebanon focuses on refugee and displaced
communities. We are working with partner NGOs, INGOs and agencies
working with Palestinian communities in Lebanon.
Contact our
Middle East program office.
Development issues
Poverty and employment
Government restrictions
Access to services - education and
health
Psychosocial welfare
Poverty and employment
Poverty in Lebanon, in particular amongst refugee communities,
remains a significant obstacle to human development. Palestinian
communities are unable to find stable, secure employment. Access to
legal employment by Palestinians is controlled by a permit system
and they are banned altogether from certain professional categories
of work.
Government
restrictions
The Lebanese government's attitude to Palestinians living within
its borders is conditioned by a desire for a final peace settlement
that will see the refugees returned to either Israel or the
Palestinian Territories. Thus, while some relief work is permitted,
consecutive Lebanese governments have opposed policies that seek to
facilitate permanent Palestinian integration in Lebanon.
Palestinians do not have the right to participate directly in
national elections, and channel political participation through
their support for and engagement with the political arms of
Palestinian groups active within the camps.
Access to services - education
and health
The status of Palestinians as non-citizens excludes them -
unlike in Syria and Jordan - from public health, education and
social services. These services are instead provided in a limited
way by the United Nations Refugee and Works Agency for Refugees in
the Near East (UNRWA) and NGOs.
Psychosocial welfare
All refugee communities are exposed to significant mental health
risks, and for Palestinian refugee communities in Lebanon the
impact of almost 60 years of living 'in limbo' has been a
significant decline in psychosocial health. Added to this rising
poverty, societal disparity, marginalisation, conflict, and a lack
of education, such a decline has manifested in the increasing
prevalence of learning difficulties, rising crime and suicide
rates, and growing risk behaviours. Counselling, social work and
youth work, and the provision of 'life skills' programs are
not common, and professional expertise in this sector is low.