There’s no denying that Lebanon has a race problem. Accounts of racially charged physical and verbal abuse of, and discrimination towards, black- and brown-skinned refugees and migrants are common. Civil society organisations such as the Anti-Racism Movement (ARM) have documented widespread racist and exploitative practices. Even the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) has repeatedly pointed to Lebanon’s lack of anti-discrimination legislation and recommended that the country should ensure that all manifestations of racial discrimination are prohibited and punished.
During my almost decade-long research on refugee protection in Lebanon, I have had many conversations with refugees and other migrants from a wide range of backgrounds. I have also talked at length with humanitarian aid workers, activists and state officials. They all appear to agree on one important thing: that racial discrimination is a major issue for refugees from countries like Sudan, Eritrea and Ethiopia. Yet, in practice, the humanitarian response seems to disregard this issue in its entirety, and the situation of these refugees has long been overshadowed by larger humanitarian emergency responses for refugees from neighboring Middle Eastern countries. What is going on, and what can we do about it?
Humanitarianism and racialised hierarchies
Racial hierarchies have long pervaded humanitarian work worldwide. The current UN special rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, Tendayi Achiume, has pointed to the more specific racial implications of global refugee policy, showing how race continues to persist as a neocolonial structure by allocating benefits and advantages to some and not others.
