2.2.2. Refugees Residing Outside of Camps Most Palestinian registered refugees (68.8 percent) live outside UNRWA’s 58 official camps.250 These refugees reside in and around cities and towns in the host countries, often in areas adjacent to refugee camps or in one of the unofficial refugee camps in Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan. Many West Bank villages and towns host a significant refugee population. There are approximately 100 localities in the occupied West Bank in which 1948 refugees comprise more than 50 percent of the total population. Based on the Palestinian Housing Censuses in 1997, 2007 and 2017, the proportion of refugees living in the West Bank showed significant fluctuations in certain governorates over the last two decades.251 In Lebanon, UNRWA reported that 49.5 percent of the Palestinian refugee population was registered as living outside of camps. The 2017 Population and Housing Census in Palestinian Camps and Gatherings conducted by the Lebanese government, showed that 54.9 percent of Palestinians in Lebanon live in 156 gatherings, which are defined as “the geographic area, outside the official camps, which is home to a minimum 15 Palestinian households.”252 2.3. Characteristics of the Refugee and IDP Population Demographic and socioeconomic indicators reflect the vulnerability of both Palestinian refugees and IDPs over the course of more than seven decades of displacement. The lack of personal security, socio-economic wellbeing, and stability are the result of Israel’s policies and practices of colonization, forcible transfer, and apartheid. Further, due to a series of armed conflicts in the region,253 refugeehood is compounded by statelessness, ineffective protection, and insufficient assistance.254 Due to lack of registration and documentation, and the protracted intergenerational nature of the displacement, no precise statistical data is available on the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of Palestinian refugee populations outside UNRWA’s area of operations, and little reliable data is available on the characteristics of internally displaced Palestinians throughout Mandatory Palestine. Such data is available almost exclusively for the population of UNRWA registered 1948 refugees, who constitute only 63.3 percent of the Palestinian displaced population. 250 Middle East Monitor, ‘Report: 6.4m Palestinians are refugees’ (Middle East Monitor, 20 June 2022) <https://www. middleeastmonitor.com/20220620-report-6-4m-palestinians-are-refugees/> accessed 3 October 2022. 251 PCBS, ‘Population, Housing and Establishment Census 1997: Census Final Results – Summary (Population, Housing, Buildings & Establishments) by Governorate’ (1999) <http://www.pcbs.gov.ps/pcbs_2012/Publications.aspx>; PCBS, Population, Housing and Establishment Census 2007: Census Final Results in The Palestinian Territory – Summary (Population and Housing) (PCBS 2012) <http://www.pcbs.gov.ps/Downloads/book1822.pdf>; PCBS, Population, Housing and Establishment Census 2017: Census Final Results Summary (PCBS 2018) <http://www.pcbs.gov.ps/Downloads/book2369. pdf> accessed 3 October 2022. 252 LPDC and PCBS, Key Findings Report 2017 (n 235). 253 See BADIL, ‘Forced Secondary Displacement: Palestinian refugees in Arab host countries’ (2010) 44 Al Majdal <https://www.badil.org/phocadownload/Badil_docs/publications/al-majdal-44.pdf> accessed 3 October 2022. 254 For a discussion on statelessness and the “protection gaps” that impact the situation of Palestinian refugees and IDPs, see Chapter 3 of this survey. 52