Back to Contents The same source stated: “Palestine refugees consistently report experiencing discrimination in hiring practices and opportunities for employment. They are faced with informal restrictions on the types of jobs and industries they can be hired for due to additional bureaucracy around contracts and work permits, and discrimination; in 2015, 36 percent employed in occupations such as agricultural labourers, domestic workers and construction workers Palestine refugees are often unable to access better paid positions and are paid less than their Lebanese counterparts for the same work. Beyond this, Palestine refugees face precarious working conditions including lack of written contracts and lack of employment benefits, as well as insecure job tenure. Differential treatment in the workplace is also an issue. Their precarious status vis-à-vis the Lebanese labour law, coupled with the ongoing economic crisis, has left many Palestine refugees vulnerable to exploitation. […]” (Source: UNRWA: “Protection brief: Palestine refugees living in Lebanon”, September 2020 “, p. 1) UNRWA observed that both Palestine Refugees in Lebanon and Palestinian Refugees from Syria face obstacles accessing the labour market. “They [PRLs] are also still required to obtain an annual work permit through a lengthy administrative process which depends on the willingness of the employer to request it from the Lebanese authorities. Syndicated liberal professions have not been required to amend their bylaws, and as a result, PRL are prevented from employment in 39 professions such as medicine, law and engineering. Moreover, PRS, like Syrian Refugees, do not benefit from any labour law facilitation, even the standards applicable to PRL. As a result, 93 percent of employed PRS work in the informal private sector, leaving them vulnerable to abuse. 98 percent of PRS do not hold a work permit, and 49 per cent of PRS families report severe food-insecurity. 93 per cent of PRS households rely on UNRWA assistance as their main source of livelihood (UNRWA, socio-economic survey, 2020).” (Source: UNRWA: "Protection brief Palestine refugees living in Lebanon Updated in September 2020", September 2020, p. 1) Based on a Whatsapp survey in Palestinian camps and gatherings in Lebanon, the UNDP stated in August 2020 that: “Rather than fierce competition for jobs amongst different nationalities, a lack of employment opportunities compounded by legal exclusion from the labour market was identified as the root cause of these problems.” (Source: UNDP, “Nothing and Everything to Lose: Results from a Qualitative Whatsapp survey of Palestinian Camps and Gatherings in Lebanon”, August 2020, p. 10) A collective of NGOs working with Palestinians in Lebanon made a joint submission to the Human Rights Council Universal Periodic Review in 2020 in which they stated that: “12.5. Restricting Palestinian refugees from accessing the Lebanese labor market Lebanon’s Labor Law discriminates between Lebanese and non-Lebanese citizens. It is not sensitive to the status of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, who fall under laws governing foreign labor. Despite the Labor Law Amendment 129/2010, namely Article 59, which exempted them from the principle of reciprocity and work permit fees, they are required to obtain a work permit in some professions that must be preceded by registering at the NSSF. The annual registration requirement leads to instability. 12.6. Denying Palestinian refugees the right to work in the liberal professions Palestinian refugees in Lebanon are barred from working in what is called the «liberal professions» that require membership in the related syndicate. Laws regulating such professions require Lebanese nationality. For example, the Bar Association’s laws stipulate that practicing lawyers must be Lebanese for at least the past ten years. Other professions call for reciprocity and the right to practice in their country of origin, such as the Lebanese Order of Physicians (applying Decree 1659 of 1979), the Order of Pharmacists, and the Order of Engineers and Architects. 9. Access to labour market, means of basic subsistence 90