Back to Contents But then began marginalization. Suleiman believes that “placing the refugees in camps that are cut off from the Lebanese environment and are more like ghettos, was the beginning of the intended marginalization of the Palestinians.” The Lebanese authorities granted citizenship to thousands of Christian Palestinians, according to Suleiman, in “clear sectarian discrimination”, while “special presidential decrees granted citizenship to wealthy and affluent refugees, regardless of their sect.”” (Source: Raseef22, “A fourth generation of Palestinians living in Lebanon “on the fringes of the law”, 6 December 2021) Exploitation and other types of harm 14.3. Are stateless Palestinians disproportionately affected by exploitation and other types of harm such as physical violence, sexual abuse etc? Are stateless Palestinians disproportionately affected by human trafficking? In their “Syria, Lebanon and Jordan Emergency Appeal 2022’’, UNRWA wrote: “Violence continues to be a regular occurrence throughout the Palestine refugee community in Lebanon, along with a reported widespread availability of weapons.” (Information on the situation in the refugee community is based on UNRWA protection staff observations and from discussions with community leaders, women’s committees and people from the community.” (Source: UNRWA, “Syria, Lebanon and Jordan, 2022 Emergency Appeal Progress Report for the reporting period 1 January – 30 June 2022”, 3 November 2022, p. 5) In its 2021 Annual Operations report, UNRWA reported that: “During the reporting period, the protection context deteriorated in Lebanon with the worsening economic situation; a fuel crisis and electricity cuts during a summer heat wave contributed to increased tensions between neighbours and within families with shootings, stabbings and armed clashes significantly increasing between July and September (33 incidents, up from 21 during the first six months of the year), reducing to 16 incidents during the last quarter (citing International Labour Organization, “Assessing Informality and Vulnerability among Disadvantaged Groups in Lebanon: A Survey of Lebanese, and Syrian and Palestinian Refugees.) During the third quarter, 17 Palestine refugees were reported injured and seven were killed, compared to 38 injured and 17 dead throughout the whole of the reporting period. In addition, PRL and PRS reported significant increase in child protection GBV violations during the third quarter, with slight improvements in the last three months of the year. Mental health needs remained high throughout the year, although several people advised that they lacked the time and/or money to PSS access services.” (Source: UNRWA, “Annual Operational Report 2021” 27 October 2022, p. 122) A collective of NGOs working in Lebanon made a joint submission to the Human Rights Council Universal Periodic Review in 2020 in which they stated among others that: “Stateless children are at risk of being trafficked, since they have no legal documents and no protection. This risk becomes greater for institutionalised stateless children, due to the lack of control on the institutions and their compliance with the obligation to register the children. There is no facilitated access to the records of these institutions. They do not disclose any information to researchers and even sometimes to the administrative and judicial authorities in charge. The dossiers of these children at institutions – accessible only if the institution wishes so and is asking for assistance to register the child and rarely by judicial order - are almost empty: containing no protection orders, police reports, or regular monitoring reports by UPEL (the Union for the Protection of Children in Lebanon) as required by law.” (Source: The Collective for Research & Training on Development- Action, The Nationality Campaign, Ruwad alHoukouk Frontiers Rights et al, “Joint Submission to the Human Rights Council Universal Periodic Review”, July 2020, p. 11) 14. Treatment by society (including families, communities and other non-state actors) 131