Palestinian Refugee Statistics in Lebanon: Between Daylight and the Cover of Night

. 16-10-2018

-       The number of Palestinian refugees officially registered in the records of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in Lebanon in 2017 was 469,331 refugees.., however UNRWA clarified that it does not have a count of the number of Palestinian refugees currently residing in Lebanon..except for the official register. And if one of the Palestinian refugees decides to leave Lebanon..they at UNRWA do not know that..and it is not reflected in their records...!!!
In late 2017, the Lebanese Central Administration of Statistics and the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), under the supervision of the Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee, conducted a statistical census of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon..who live in 12 camps and 156 gatherings ...and the result of the census in late 2017 was surprising, as their number amounted to 174,422 refugees..only. It is different from all the expectations that had estimated their number at about half a million people..and this means that there are no fewer than about 225,000 Palestinian refugees who migrated from Lebanon in a semi-permanent way..!!!

-       Previously, a survey was carried out on a sample composed of 2,600 households in the summer of 2010, conducted by UNRWA and the American University of Beirut (AUB), and the number of Palestinians was estimated based on these samples to range between 260,000 and 280,000 persons..

The official Lebanese statistics for the number of Palestinian refugees, existing in the records of the Ministry of Interior and Municipalities in Lebanon, indicated that the number of Palestinian refugees in these records reached 592,711 Palestinian refugees...until the end of 2016...while the number of Palestinian refugees registered with UNRWA..at the end of 2016, was 459,292 Palestinian refugees.....(according to these records)

The political tensions in Lebanon among the different political factions had warned some of them about the Palestinian demographic danger to the balance of political power..in Lebanon..And on a moonless night!!!, the census was carried out..and the result came..that the Palestinians constitute only a small community that poses no danger...with the aforementioned count..noting that the refugees in Lebanon suffer from neglect and restrictions on freedoms of work and ownership; there are more than 80 professions at least closed to Palestinian refugees and they are not allowed to practice them.

It is striking to ask that Lebanese sources confirm that no general population census has been conducted in Lebanon itself...since 1932 for fear of the census results and the sensitivities they raise among sects...and the spotlight was always on the Palestinian refugees..whom some sects sought to naturalize to increase the number of their sect members and use that in the political equation in Lebanon...So what prompted them to carry out this count...? ..And what is the explanation for this difference between the official registration in UNRWA records and the Lebanese internal and municipal records on the one hand..and the results of the census of Palestinian refugees on the other hand!!! Where did the hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon go..? Did they emigrate quietly in stages to Europe and America? Were they naturalized? Despite skepticism about that, given the sensitivity of the issue among the sects in Lebanon. As we indicated.!!.

The living conditions of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon were classified, as the proportion of those who are in the extremely poor category among Palestinian refugees in Lebanon reached 6.6%, while the proportion of those below the poverty line was 66.4%, and the unemployment rate reached 56% ..

Many sources on Palestinian refugees in Lebanon reported that emigration abroad began among Palestinian refugees in Lebanon in light of the strict restrictions on work and ownership imposed by the Lebanese authorities; it began in the 1950s and headed to the Arab Gulf, especially Kuwait, and migration continued in the 1960s and mid-1970s, when its course changed to the United Arab Emirates. As for Palestinian migration to Europe — it began before the Lebanese civil war in 1975 and during it, initially as educational migration and then as a result of the civil war...to East Germany, and then Palestinian migrants would enter from Berlin in East Germany into West Germany via a "kuwa" – not under anyone's control, and it was considered a dead point..so the Palestinian migrant would pass through it into West Germany to work and seek education...Palestinian migrants continued to resort to Germany until the year of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, when Sweden opened its doors to Palestinian refugees and then Denmark...then in 1989 Britain began opening transit visas for Palestinian refugees..to go to America, and some slipped through from the transit terminal to London

The Palestinians' journey to migrate to Europe and America is the result of the restrictions imposed by the Lebanese authorities..which deprive them of work and ownership, have stripped them of livelihoods.., and the wars and fighting that occurred in many previous periods..., in addition to the Lebanese authorities' constant fear of the danger of settlement...and changing the sectarian demographic equation in Lebanon..despite the fact that expatriate Palestinian refugees abroad remit approximately $2 billion US dollars annually to their families in Lebanon. And this is considered support for the Lebanese economy

These statistics come amid the Arab-Israeli conflict...and the new American administration's aspiration to end the Palestinian issue and the refugee problem, to end the right of return..and the American president announced that the American administration knows the refugees and confines their definition to those who were displaced during the Nakba only..and excludes their descendants of subsequent generations..and the number of refugees was estimated according to this American definition..at about 40,000 refugees still alive..only.. as Republican member of the House of Representatives Doug Lamborn said..that this is the number that the United States recognizes as Palestinian refugees. And UNRWA's operations will be ended

We do not know whether there is a political story and objectives behind the Lebanese census we referred to above of Palestinian refugees at the end of 2017...which surprised UNRWA circles...and the political circles in Lebanon and the Arab League and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)...but what is the answer...? No one answered !!..