As Lebanon goes for another full lockdown to contain the rapid spread of COVID-19 which has so far resulted in 116,476 cases and 900 deaths, Palestinian refugees are left to ruefully reflect on how they can possibly maintain physical distancing in densely populated and highly impoverished camps. As Philip Alston, the outgoing UN Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights, has suggested, coronavirus’ ‘wholly disproportionate impact on poor people and marginalised communities is inescapable’. This has particularly been the case for Palestinians living in 12 refugee camps in Lebanon where COVID-19 has deepened and magnified the social and economic malaise that has accompanied 72 years of refugee status. Now, this pandemic of poverty has been exacerbated by the wider social and economic upheaval that has impacted Lebanon itself.
The impact of Syria’s war on Lebanon
Over 470,000 Palestinian Refugees Lebanon (PRL) are registered with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA); the UN mission established to provide for the welfare of Palestinian refugees following the ethnic cleansing of Palestine in 1948. In the absence of a census, UNRWA estimates on the basis of take-up of its services, that 180,000 Palestinian refugees are residing in-country. The lack of precision in regard to numbers is in large part owing to the Palestinian Refugees Syria (PRS) who fled to Lebanon after the start of the war in Syria in 2011. Sixty per cent of PRS (262,000) have been displaced at least once by the war, 4,000 have been killed and 50,000 are estimated to have left the country.
An estimated 29,000 of the PRS have taken refuge in the 12 camps in Lebanon which has increased competition for employment and helped to suppress wages. Before the pandemic, the unemployment rate for PRL was 23% and 52% for PRS; these figures are likely to rise owing to the economic contraction that accompanies lockdown.
