Wednesday, June 20, 2012

"Palestine refugees in Lebanon do not enjoy several basic human rights, for example, they do not have the right to work in as many as 20 professions" (AFP)

I assume most of the "refugees" the article refers to were born in Lebanon. That would make them native Lebanese of Palestinian extraction.
[...] "The Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon are considered the worst of the region’s refugee camps in terms of poverty, health, education and living conditions," said the American Near East Refugee Aid (ANERA) in a report released on World Refugee Day.

ANERA cites discrimination, isolation, poverty, joblessness, poor housing and a lack of proper schools, clinics, hospitals and sewage systems as problems affecting Palestinian refugees in Lebanon . . .

"Palestine refugees in Lebanon do not enjoy several basic human rights, for example, they do not have the right to work in as many as 20 professions," UNRWA adds, noting that most refugees rely on UN assistance for survival. [...]
This is all not news, of course. A 2008 Daily Star article described the Palestinians as barred from 70 professions. According to the Wikipedia article "Palestinians in Lebanon":
In 2005, Lebanon eliminated a ban on Palestinians holding most clerical and technical positions, provided they obtain a temporary work permit from the Labor Ministry, but more than 20 high-level professions remain off-limits to Palestinians. Few Palestinians have benefited from the 2005 reform, though. In 2009, only 261 of more than 145,679 permits issued to non-Lebanese were for Palestinians.
So they are still formally banned from the 20 positions? It is not easy to find clear information on this topic, which is odd, considering that the left often seems to have made a fetish of the Palestinians.

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