Back to Contents heavily on UNRWA assistance as their main source of income.[...] However, that meagre cash assistance is donordependent and may soon end, given the agency’s dire financial situation.” (Source: OHCHR, “Visit to Lebanon – Report of the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights”, Olivier De Schutter, 11 April 2022, p.9) In a peer-reviewed article about Palestinians’ access to the labour market in Lebanon published in 2022, academics Samih Eloubeidi and Prof. Tina Kempin wrote: “With regards to employment, Palestinians are barred from working in 39 high-wage professions outside the camps, including law, medicine, and engineering, and from owning real estate property outside the camps. Men tend to work in construction (34%) while women work in the food processing sector (18%), specialised retail (15%), and health and social services (14%).[...] Many others work in the informal sector as agricultural labourers, salespeople, service workers, and cleaners, which renders them more vulnerable to dangerous working conditions and offers them no health coverage and no paid holiday or sick leave. Palestinians have to abide by laws established for foreigner’s access to employment, many of which are based on the principle of reciprocity of rights and obligations, meaning that foreigners can only hold positions that would be available to Lebanese people in the foreigner’s country of origin. This creates a problem for Palestinians because of the inception of the state of Israel. In addition, it has been difficult for Palestinians to obtain work permits, which require an employment contract, a document many Palestinians cannot acquire.” (Source: Samih Eloubeidi & Tina Kempin Reuter/ The International Journal of Human Rights, “Restricting access to employment as a human rights violation: a case study of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon”, 11 April 2022, pp. 3-4) In its series of country reports for 2021, published in March 2022, the US Department of State wrote about Lebanon: “The law allows a special account to provide end-of-service indemnities or severance pay to Palestinian refugees who retire or resign. These benefits were available only to Palestinians working in the legal labour market. Palestinians did not benefit from national sickness and maternity funds or the family allowances fund. UNRWA continued to bear the cost of basic medical, maternity, or family health-care expenses (excluding worker’s compensation). Palestinian refugees received partial access to the benefits of the National Social Security Fund if they worked in the regular labour market and had a work permit. A law expanding employment rights and removing some restrictions on Palestinian refugees was not fully implemented, and Palestinians remained barred from working in 39 skilled professions, including medicine, law, and engineering that require membership in a professional association, although since July they were permitted to practise nursing when no Lebanese candidate was available.” (Source: US Department of State (USDOS) “2021 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Lebanon”, Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, March 2022, p. 28) Freedom House wrote in its annual report for the year 2021 about Lebanon in, published March 2022: “Some 45 percent of those already residing in Lebanon prior to the Syrian civil war live in 12 designated refugee camps and are restricted from 39 professions, contributing to widespread poverty, unemployment, and underemployment. In 2019, Lebanese authorities issued new regulations requiring foreigners to possess work permits, further restricting Palestinians’ access to the labor market.” (Source: Freedom House, “Freedom in the World 2021”, March 2022) 9. Access to labour market, means of basic subsistence 86