Refugee Watch-30-The Unrecognized Palestinian Refugees

An estimate small group of around 5000 Palestinian refugees lack legal recognition in Lebanon. They are not registered with UNRWA in Lebanon nor the Lebanese authorities.

This group, commonly known as “Non-Ids”, do not benefit from the protection of any State or international organization. The majority of them entered Lebanon under the legal umbrella of the 1969 Cairo Agreement ¹ they are treated as illegal migrants by the Lebanese authorities and subsequently denied any human rights.

Most of the Non-Ids live in the Palestinian camps Unrecognized Palestinian refugees are unable to move inside the country and/or leave Lebanon and are not able to enter any other country for lack of documentation or due to the refusal of other countries to welcome them. They are in continuous fear of being arrested, detained and deported, with no prospect of another country accepting them. When arrested, the Lebanese State maintains them in detention until it is convinced that it cannot deport them to any country and releases them without any legal basis, putting them again at risk of arrest and detention. Many of them got married in Lebanon and their children were born in Lebanon but are unable to register their marriages or their children’s birth certificates. Furthermore, because they are not registered with UNRWA, they do not receive any the regular socio-economic assistance from UNRWA.

The majority of them fall under the following categories:
1. Palestinians holding valid or expired identification documents issued by the relevant official authorities in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and incapable of returning to the Kingdom.
2. Palestinians holding identification documents issued by the relevant official authorities from the Arab Republic of Egypt – administration of the Gaza strip and hot having permission to reside in Egypt and are incapable of returning to Gaza strip.
3. Palestinians holding Identification documents issued by the relevant official authorities in Iraq and due to the violence and oppression targeting them they are deprived from Iraqi protection.
4. Expelled Palestinians whose return to the Occupied Palestinian Territories is restricted by Israel.

Frontiers’ groundbreaking legal study “Falling Through the Cracks” (2006), involving field work, and legal and policy analysis, identified the main reasons why thousands of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon are deprived of official recognition and registration by the Lebanese government and the United Nations in Lebanon.
            The underlying problem is that Palestinian refugee status is defined today by rules written mainly in the 1950s and 1960s.  These rules are unable to accommodate the complexity of such a large and long term population displacement.
            Although most Palestinian refugees in the Middle East fled in 1948 or 1967, not all fit this pattern.  While conflicts inside Arab states led to much of the non-recognition problem in Lebanon, the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian Territories is also a major contributor:
–         Some refugees have voluntarily or involuntarily moved on to new countries in a process of secondary migration.  The non-recognition problem in Lebanon has been frequently attributed to the turmoil in Jordan in 1970 and the powerful role of the PLO in Lebanon in the 1970s, both of which brought new refugees to Lebanese soil.
^–        Small numbers of Palestinians left their homes in odd years, such as before 1948 or between the 1948 and 1967 wars.  Some refugees in Lebanon had been displaced from the Gaza Strip or the West Bank between 1968 and 1981.  They are displaced from their homes by the Arab-Israeli conflict, but lack recognition as Palestinian refugees.
These rules require either amendment or at least flexible interpretation in order to reflect the Palestinian refugee situation today. 

Since the 1960s, Lebanese authorities have de facto stopped registering Palestinians in Lebanon in line with their refusal to augment the official number of Palestinian refugees. Unrecognized Palestinians are therefore facing difficulties to regularize their legal status in Lebanon.

Lebanon is also engaged in a gender discrimination policy that prevents women from passing on their status to their children and husbands. This practice increases the number of unrecognised people with each generation, and also misses an important opportunity to reduce the problem.

In 2006, the Lebanese authorities established the Lebanese Working Group on Palestinian Refugees, later renamed the Lebanese Palestinian Dialogue Committee, to actively search for an adequate solution for the unrecognised Palestinians through a dialogue with the recently reopened PLO office – that has been closed since 1982. One of the proposed solutions would be for the Lebanese government to recognize the Palestinian Authority Passport and grant them a temporary residency in Lebanon. Simultaneously, a network of NGOs is continuing its advocacy campaign requesting the legal recognition of Undocumented Palestinians.

Looking specifically at the problem of non-registration by UNRWA, there are four main challenges:

Limits of the ‘working definition:” UNRWA has progressively revised its “working definition” of a Palestine refugee. The current definition, in place since 1993, leaves out people who fled Palestine before 1948 or between 1949 and 1967. It also leaves in limbo Palestinians who fled in 1967 or later, although the General Assembly has asked UNRWA to assist such people. Post-1967 refugees have at best de facto assistance from UNRWA, but do not carry registration cards.

Difficulty to Register for the First Time: Palestinians who initially fled in 1948 and for one reason or another were not registered in UNRWA’s first census in Lebanon and or in any of UNRWA’ operating countries may register for the first time now if they fulfil the conditions. In order to register an individual, UNRWA requires proof that the person or his or her ancestors resided in Palestine between 1946 and 1948. As it is difficult to produce such a proof after 60 years of displacement, many Palestine Refugees are unable to register with UNRWA. The refugees who succeed to obtain registration with UNRWA are not automatically entitled to a legal status in Lebanon. UNRWA registered between 40-50 new Palestine refugees who were also registered with the Lebanese Ministry of Interior in the last five years.²

Secondary migration: The possibility to transfer UNRWA registration for Palestine refugees who move from one UNRWA country of operation to another is restricted by UNRWA Consolidated Eligibility and Registration Instructions of January 2002 and of the June 2006. The Instructions subject the transfer of legal residence to the approval of the governmental authorities in the country to which the refugee wishes to be transferred. In practice, UNRWA transfers the registration allowing the individual to be eligible for services (if s-he fulfils the conditions for services) but does not take any action with the governmental authorities to obtain their approval for a transfer of registration that would allow the refugee to obtain a legal status.

Gender discrimination: To date, UNRWA’s registration policy forces women to be registered with a “head of household,” normally either a father or husband. Women are not able to add spouses to their own UN files, and cannot pass on status to their spouses and children. This policy violates international human rights law, and exacerbates the problem of non-recognition. UNRWA has tentatively committed itself to consider changing this policy. It has recently decided to register the unregistered husband and children of registered refugee woman but it will only register them as “persons” and not as “refugees”. Hence, the refugee status of a registered Palestine woman is not granted to her husband and children who remain without legal status in Lebanon.

Adding to the complexity, there are in fact two relevant UN agencies for Palestinian refugee: UNRWA and UNHCR. All the unrecognised Palestinians in Lebanon are entitled to UN protection and/or assistance. Yet, responsibility appears today to be diffused between UNRWA and UNHCR so that some people are left out.

In 2002, UNHCR considered that Palestinian refugees should enjoy a “continuity of protection.” This principle recognizes that Palestinian refugees were given a unique status in international law, and should be guaranteed continuous protection or assistance from the United Nations.

In theory, the interpretation of Article 1-D of the 1951 Convention adopted by UNHCR in 2002 ensures the continuity of protection for Palestinian Refugees, allowing UNHCR to stretch its protection to Palestinians refugees who do not receive protection or assistance from UNRWA. Yet, contrary to international refugee law, UNHCR Offices in the Middle East have not implemented this principle to fill the legal gaps in which the Unrecognized Palestinian refugees have fallen.

It is Frontiers opinion that, as long as UNRWA is not able to provide legal protection to undocumented Palestinians and as long as the Lebanese authorities continue to treat them as illegal immigrants and deny them basic human rights, Undocumented Palestinian automatically fall under the mandate of UNHCR. The current UNHCR practice in Lebanon and other UNRWA country of operations of entirely excluding Palestinians is legally untenable and should be re-assessed. The need to solve the situation of this category of refugees who suffer from double deprivation – deprivation from citizenship in the country of origin and from recognition in the current country of refuge – is becoming more pressing.
It is Frontiers’ opinion that, unless UNHCR and UNRWA request from the United Nations General Assembly to modify UNRWA working definition in order to cover Palestinian refugees who do not fit the current definition, the implementation of the principle of continuity of protection to Undocumented Palestinians in Lebanon should be improved based on the following guidelines:
– Undocumented Palestinians who are Palestine Refugees or Displaced Persons and are not registered with UNRWA should be considered ipso facto as refugees under the 1951 Convention or UNHCR Mandate.
– Undocumented Palestinians in Lebanon who are registered with UNRWA in an area of operation other than Lebanon should be considered ipso facto as refugees under the 1951 Convention or UNHCR Mandate. Although some of them are eligible for UNRWA services under certain conditions, their registration with UNRWA in another area does not provide them with legal protection in Lebanon.
– Undocumented Palestinians who are neither Palestine Refugee nor Displaced Persons should be recognized as refugees under Article 1-A of the 1951 Convention.

Since these refugees live in hard and severe circumstances and are deprived legal protection and since endeavouring to solve their case has become an urgent matter, Frontiers recommends the following:
– UNHCR should recognize its responsibility to provide protection for Palestinian refugees in the region that do not fall under UNRWA current working definition of a Palestine Refugee.
– UNHCR offices should open their doors for the registration and adjudication of the claim of Palestinian refugees in the region that do not fall under UNRWA current working definition of a Palestine Refugee.

1. The 1969 Cairo agreement concluded between the Palestinian Liberation Organization and the Lebanese authorities recognized the Palestinian presence in Lebanon but was abrogated unilaterally by the Lebanese State in 1987 leaving those who were recognized on its basis in legal non-existence. Lebanese authorities are often faced with the inability to deport unrecognised Palestinian refugees to any countries as they are stateless.

2. Interviews with UNRWA, 7 February 2007.