Back to Contents In response to a question on the repercussions of working without a work permit, Palestinian researcher Walaa Kayyal responded that: “No organisation will jeopardise their reputation or their relation with the government to employ you without a work permit. So it is either you have a work permit, or the person issue a work permit for themselves to be employed. But sometimes, and I’ve heard this through many research work that I have done that specifically pharmacies employ someone who is stateless without work permits. The Ministry of Public Health comes and conducts inspections and check-ups on all the pharmacies, specifically, the new established pharmacies or the pharmacies in villages. When this inspection occurs, the stateless employees would be smuggled out because they are not allowed to work without a permit. If you were caught, this is definitely a complete termination of your work contract. What exactly happens is up to the person who caught you. They can raise an allegation and it can go to court. Or they can just say, «You’re not allowed to work anymore.» and terminate your contract. But then again, the owner of the pharmacy can tell you, «come tomorrow. It’s fine.» They don’t do regular checkups. It’s very rarely that they go and they catch people. But it happens because I’ve heard specifically from stateless individuals who are educated that when the ministry comes for any checkup or they come to collect taxes, they would hide in the toilet.” (Source: Walaa Kayyal, interview record, 31 October 2022) Katherine Harbord, a lecturer in human rights whom we interviewed for this report in October 2022 also shared her knowledge on the consequences of working without a work permit for Palestinians and employers: “This is something that has previously come up about a year, a year and a half ago. And my understanding is that the main consequences of not having a permit-- of course, there are potentially legal consequences, a fine. It’s an offence. My understanding is that it carries kind of a statutory fine in the same way if you’re caught speeding or something, you have whatever the fine is. So there are consequences. But the more important consequences, I think, are actually perhaps the unintended ones. So if somebody doesn’t have a permit, they don’t have the protections inscribed in labour law. They’re open to exploitation, unscrupulous employers, those kinds of ancillary problems rather than justifying itself. It’s my understanding too that employers, if they have an illegal worker, they also are subject to a fine. So the gentleman I spoke to did say it was quite difficult to find a good job without a work permit. Finding work is easy, but employers aren’t generally willing to take the risk for higher-status jobs and roles. Understandably. The man that I was speaking to had involvement-- or had previously had involvement with the trade union movement, for example. So it may be that he was also more aware than the average person of the situation because of his interest in labour laws and labour relations.” (Source: Katherine Harbord, interview record, 13 October 2022) Also Katherine Harbord, a lecturer in human rights specialised in the Middle East whom we interviewed for this report in October 2022 said that Palestinians still had to pay for work permits: “I spoke to a Palestinian in Lebanon towards the end of last year who told me that they do still require a work permit, it’s like an authorisation, it’s not something you have to physically pay for. But in practice, because of the problems of weak state structures, in practice often there is a charge attached or you can’t receive it without paying a fee. No, fee is the wrong word. I was trying to think of a polite way to say bribe, but I mean bribe.” (Source: Katherine Harbord, interview record, 13 October 2022) In a series of written responses to questions sent by Asylos for this report, Dr. Jasmin Lilian Diab, Director of the Institute for Migration Studies at the Lebanese American University indicated in October 2022 that the aforementioned decision by Minister for Labour, Moustapha Bayram, to allow Palestinians to work in union-regulated professions, was “never enforced, and reportedly revoked.” (Source: Dr. Jasmin Lilian Diab, written communication with Asylos, 6 October 2022) 9. Access to labour market, means of basic subsistence 101