Daily Star - Palestinian Refugees

By Dalila Mahdawi
Daily Star staff

BEIRUT: Organizations providing vocational training to Palestinians should better coordinate efforts to improve employment opportunities, a committee which seeks labor rights for the refugee population said Monday.
Presenting the study, “Mapping Vocational and Educational Training Providers to Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon,” The Committee for Employment of Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon (CEP) also renewed its call to grant the 400,000-strong refugee population greater labor rights.
Unemployment, and the poverty and disenfranchisement it brings along with it, is the main problem faced by Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, said the study, which was funded by the Norwegian Foreign Affairs Ministry. A 2006 survey by the research foundation Fafo found that although 60 percent of all Palestinian refugees in Lebanon are of a working age, their participation in the labor force only stood at 37 percent, comprised mostly of young men employed in unskilled professions.
“There is a growing feeling that this is the time to do something about Palestinian refugees in Lebanon,” CEP chair Samir Khoury told The Daily Star. “We’re trying to use this momentum to build up a body of support to change the [labor] law.”
Until recently, over 70 professions were off limits to Palestinians. An amendment in 2005 allowed them to obtain work permits for low-level clerical and manual labor but upheld a veto on professional fields like medicine, law or engineering. But only a handful of Palestinians have been able to secure work permits, forcing them into unsecure jobs where they can face unfair dismissal or lower wages than their Lebanese counterparts. Out of 109,379 work permits granted in 2005, only 278 were issued to Palestinians, said the Consultation and Research Institute (CRI), which carried out the study.
Because Lebanon’s labor laws are based on the principle of reciprocity, Palestinians are viewed as foreigners and yet not afforded the rights granted to other foreigners who belong to recognized states that can offer similar benefits to the Lebanese.
Lebanon’s high labor surplus (estimated at 248,000 workers between 1997 and 2000) is an additional problem for Palestinian refugees, CEP said. But Palestinians must work in order to survive.
To help enhance Palestinian employment opportunities, the UN Palestinian relief organization UNRWA and several other NGOs run vocational education training programs. The courses have “slightly improved but not drastically improved” employment opportunities, said Mirna Saidi of CRI.
She recommended that organizations providing vocational training coordinate to avoid duplication of services and that standardized courses be offered across the board. Organizations should also maintain an ongoing relationship with graduates of vocational training programs and introduce “courses that respond to market demands,” Saidi added.
CEP is “totally committed” to UN resolutions pertaining to Palestinians, particularly their right of return, Khoury said. He added that CEP “considered the right of Palestinians to work in Lebanon does not go against the right of return,” rebuffing an argument often put forward by those who oppose granting greater rights to the refugee population. “Giving Palestinians the right to work is beneficial to all,” Khoury said. “it’s a win-win scenario,” Khoury added.
His comments reiterate those made in a 2009 study by the Najdeh Association, which concluded Palestinians positively contributed to Lebanon’s economy and contributed to “invigorating” the areas surrounding their camps by creating low-cost markets for other poor and marginalized communities.
At a CEP conference in February, Lebanese Forces officials said their party opposed granting labor rights to Palestinians as the needs of the Lebanese people should be given priority.
This January Palestinian Labor Minister Ahmad Majdalani met with Lebanese Labor Minister Butros Harb in Beirut to urge Lebanon grant labor rights to the refugee population, saying it was the best way to combat poverty and extremism.