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Sunday, June 27, 2010
18:40 Mecca time, 15:40 GMT
Refugees march for Lebanon rights
Thousands of Palestinian refugees living in Lebanon have marched in Beirut to
protest against the lack of basic rights.
The protesters gathered at a sports stadium in the Lebanese capital on Sunday
before marching to the UN headquarters in downtown Beirut.
"As Palestinians in Lebanon we have no rights. We just want to live with
dignity," Imtithal Abu Samra, 29, a Palestinian who lives in the Beddawi
refugee camp in northern Lebanon, said.
Around 400,000 Palestinian refugees, or 10 per cent of the country's
population, live in miserable conditions across Lebanon due to many factors,
such as scarce financial resources.
Shunned by many employers, not allowed to own property and facing
discrimination, Palestinian refugees are reduced to a miserable existence in
overcrowded and unsanitary camps.
Unequal rights
Palestinians in Lebanon are barred from working in dozens of professions and
employers who do end up hiring them generally pay them wages lower than their
Lebanese counterparts.
in depth
Lebanon's Palestinian refugees
The two faces of Lebanon
Shooting hope
They are not allowed to benefit from public, social or medical services and
face restrictions in Lebanese universities and schools.
Proposals for a draft law due to be debated in parliament in a few weeks would
give Palestinians the right to own a residential apartment and would legalise
work rights such as medical care in case of work-related accidents and end of
service pay.
Salvatore Lombardo, the director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency
(Unrwa), in Lebanon, said the proposed law to grant Palestinian refugees in
Lebanon basic civil rights will promote their sense of dignity and well-being
in refugee camps across the country.
However, the proposals have faced hurdles in parliament because of Christian
legislators' fears that granting Palestinians rights would eventually lead to
their naturalisation.
The issue is a sensitive topic in Lebanon, where politicians are wary about
upsetting a delicate sectarian balance. Palestinians are mostly Sunni Muslims.
Scattered camps
Palestinian fighters have been blamed for attacks on UN peacekeepers in
Lebanon, firing rockets from Lebanon into Israel - most recently during the
Gaza offensive - and forming al-Qaeda-inspired cells in refugee camps.
Approximately 425,000 Palestinians are registered as refugees in Lebanon by
Unrwa, which provides them services.
Many of them live in 12 camps scattered across the country in conditions
Lombardo described as deplorable and appalling.
They are descendants of families that fled or were forced to flee during
fighting in 1948 that led to the creation of Israel.
Palestinians have long been marginalised in Lebanon, where the 1975-90 civil
war was sparked by a conflict between Palestinian and Lebanese Christian
factions.
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