Back to Contents The UN office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs wrote in April 2022 that: “The environment in many camps is characterized by insecurity, with more interpersonal disputes escalating into armed violence in 2021 compared to previous years and occasional clashes between armed groups. There is limited access to the Lebanese justice system for all camp inhabitants, and while Palestinian women subjected to personal violence can obtain a variety of protective orders issued by the Lebanese courts, in practice the limited control exercised by Lebanese authorities within Palestinian refugee camps makes it impossible to ensure that such orders are upheld for women residing within camps.” (Source: OCHA, “Increasing Humanitarian Needs in Lebanon, April 2022”, 14 April 2022, p. 27) In June 2020 the Danish Immigration Service reported that: “In Lebanon, UNRWA is able to provide services inside Palestinian camps, except when internal fighting takes place between factions. UNRWA’s inability to influence the Lebanese government’s systems hinders its service delivery, according to Albanese. The Lebanese authorities do not exert any authority in the camps. Akram stated that the camps in Lebanon are the most poverty-stricken of the ones UNRWA operates in, except for Gaza.” (Source : Danish Immigration Service, “Palestinian Refugees Access to registration and UNRWA services, documents, and entry to Jordan” June 2020, p. 32) In the internationally recognised book they published in 2020, legal scholars Dr. Francesca Albanese [currently Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory] and Prof Lex Takkenberg wrote: “Of those reportedly in the country, between half and two-thirds reside in twelve official Palestine refugee camps located throughout the country and serviced by UNRWA, as well as in a number of informal ‘gatherings’ scattered around the country. Camps and gatherings are overcrowded, severely underserviced, and generally unhealthy. The Lebanese government does not exercise its authority or enforce its laws in the camps. The lack of an official authority responsible for public services and security creates an unsafe and insecure environment, with various types of violence and few avenues for redress. Since 2011, already overcrowded camps and gatherings have also become home to several thousand Palestinians from Syria as well as Syrian refugees.” (Source: “Francesca P. Albanese and Lex Takkenberg/Oxford University Press, Palestinian Refugees in International Law”, May 2020, Chapter 3.3.1, pp. 272-273) In the internationally recognised book they published in 2020, legal scholars Dr. Francesca Albanese [currently Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory] and Prof Lex Takkenberg wrote: “Palestinians continue to be perceived as a threat to both the sovereignty and national identity of Lebanon. Further, despite the abrogation of the Cairo Agreement, there is still an implicit acceptance that the camps are off limits to Lebanese security forces, a ‘space of exception’ in the words of sociologist Sari Hanafi, a de facto extraterritorial zone effectively outside Lebanese jurisdiction. Common criminals and others have frequently sought refuge in the camps, further aggravating the living conditions of camp residents. The conflict over Nahr el Bared in 2007 was a dramatic illustration of this and the first instance in decades where the Lebanese army forced its way into the camps. Keeping the camps as ‘extraterritorial islands’ outside the scope of the law, has had a crippling effect both on the quality of living of camp dwellers – trapped in perpetual insecurity – and on the image of Palestinians within the Lebanese society. Jaber Suleiman, who has conducted extensive research on the situation of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, observes that dealing with them as a security and humanitarian question contributes to feeding a discourse of Palestinians representing a continuous threat to Lebanese security, which in turn leads to justify their discrimination and non-integration. (Source: “Francesca P. Albanese and Lex Takkenberg/Oxford University Press, Palestinian Refugees in International Law”, May 2020, Chapter 3.3.2, p. 274) 11. Situation in the camps 120