The nationality law in light of the refugee crisis in Lebanon: old battles, new consequences

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size

Note on contributor

Marta Agosti is a multilingual international development and human-rights practitioner and researcher with over 10 years of experience working for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and various NGOs in the Arab world. Having earned an MA in Development Studies and another in Anthropological Research Methods, she is currently finishing her studies as a PhD candidate in Social Anthropology at SOAS-University of London.

Notes

1. The names have been changed to protect the identity of the participants.

2. More than a third of this number reside in the area of Bekaa.

3. UNRWA, the United Nations’ Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, provides relief to ‘persons whose normal place of residence was Palestine during the period 1 June 1946 to 15 May 1948, and who lost both home and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 conflict’, as listed on the organization’s website. The descendants of Palestinian refugee males, including legally adopted children, are also eligible for registration.

4. To clarify the roles and responsibilities of different agents, we also met with UNHCR and UNRWA local officials and senior managers in Beirut, local NGOs, religious figures, Islamic charities and volunteer groups.

5. The final report which I titled ‘La/w/yers of Un-citizenship’ was translated into Arabic but the INGO decided not to publish it. The report was deemed informative for the INGO’s internal programme but perhaps too strong for advocacy purposes, as it highlighted the failures of the different agencies involved. The workshop never took place.

6. To be precise, Hala had secured renewal of her residency through the sponsorship mechanism established by the Lebanese Government. This mechanism, as fieldwork demonstrated, was also very expensive and difficult to obtain.

7. Despite the reports of stress and depression (that often led to violence) among men, the few psychosocial support initiatives in the area were always targeting women and children.

8. UNHCR officials explained that they do not make public the vulnerability-assessment matrix that they use to select candidates for resettlement and benefits. In case of divorce or death of a husband, the claimant would have to produce documentation, which as mentioned above, is in many cases difficult to obtain.