18 November 2016
Through MAP’s projects in Lebanon we work to ensure the protection and access to healthcare for thousands of Palestinians who have fled war in Syria. Many of these families have left everything behind to seek safety, only to then be met with stifling poverty and insecurity in the refugee camps of Lebanon.
Our latest report, “If I die, bury me in Palestine”, highlights how the world’s humanitarian response to the war in Syria is failing to protect Palestinian refugees fleeing the conflict. During our research for the report, we interviewed a number of these double-refugees to hear why so many were willing to risk their lives to reach safety in Europe.
Here we publish the powerful testimony of Lubna*, a Palestinian lawyer from Syria, who spoke to us about her family’s flight from the war and life in Lebanon:
My name is Lubna, I am married and I am from Syria. I have two daughters and I’m 30 years old. I’m originally from the city of Haifa, my husband is originally from Nazareth in Palestine. We used to live in Sayyeda Zeinab camp in Damascus.
We were happy in Syria, and our financial situation was good. I studied law because I wanted to be a lawyer. In Syria after graduation, you either train with a lawyer after which you can have your own law firm, or you enrol on a one-year course, called the ‘Judicial Course’, if your grades are high enough. My marks were excellent so I was hoping to attend the course, and hoped to be a Judge. But I left Syria before I finished.
Shells started to fall on us during our exams at Damascus University. The Law Faculty is adjacent to Engineering Faculty, and in August 2013 the Engineering Faculty was hit by shelling, and several students were killed. I was then pregnant, and it was very difficult for me to continue to get to university under the shelling.
On the last days of my exams, bombs were falling on Damascus University and roads were closed, blocked by burning car tyres
On the last days of my exams, bombs were falling on Damascus University and roads were closed, blocked by burning car tyres. We were displaced from one place to another and then we thought the best option was to come to Lebanon as it’s safer here and my husband perhaps could find work.
Life in Lebanon
I came from Syria to Lebanon in July 2013. I had visited before, but I didn’t really know what life is like here. In the beginning we struggled, and stayed with my in-laws. There was also my brother-in-law’s family and my sisters-in-law, so we were about 17 persons in the same house.
When we arrived here it was very difficult: no work, no house. Life did improve when we found a home, and my husband got a job. But it is still difficult as I have two daughters and they are growing up. There are no schools for them. I am a graduate but there were no jobs for me. It upset me to see others working but I’m not. I didn’t come to beg; I hate to be called a refugee. I had hoped to study further and take the Judicial Course in Beirut University, but the fees were too high. My husband’s wages were not enough, so we couldn’t see a future for us here in Lebanon.
My husband’s wages were not enough, so we couldn’t see a future for us here in Lebanon
In Syria, my husband was an interior design contractor. He had his own business with people working for him. Here, he has no tools, and he has to work whenever he can as a painter. He had to do the scraping off and often came back home with his hands bleeding. When he was using oil-based paint, he fell ill for 2-3 days, unable to work, so he had to spend his wages on medication, because the paint affected his breathing. In winter my husband had no work for two or three months, especially when there were storms, so he worked in the summer and spent his wages in winter.
As for health services, as Palestinian refugees from Syria only have UNRWA to look after them. If, God forbid, you have a serious illness, you often can’t get the treatment and have to go to a private doctor, which is expensive. The medicine here is more expensive than the treatment.
For these reasons, we thought the best thing was for my husband to travel abroad.
Permits for Palestinian refugees
I have now found work for an NGO called Najdeh, in the field of legal protection. I deal with residency permits; many Palestinian refugees from Syria don’t have the permits they need, and face deportation.
Palestinians from Syria have to go to the Lebanese General Security Department every three months to renew permits, and the authorities make incredible demands. They request, for example, a rent contract, but in Shatila Camp there are no such contracts.
I help coordinate the affairs of the Palestinian refugees from Syria in Shatila Camp. I submit their forms to a lawyer in the General Security Department who is responsible for the whole of Lebanon. She checks their papers and offers to help them if she can. Some people can’t be helped because they violated the law and are facing deportation because of certain violations known to General Security.
A dangerous route to Europe
My husband had no choice but to travel to Europe in order to improve our situation. I was supposed to join him within 5-6 months but recent events and the many migrants have delayed us.
He went with the help of people-smugglers from Tripoli by sea. All this is because we are Palestinian refugees from Syria. First he spent 24 hours at sea until he arrived in Turkey by boat.
We are losing money and lives, as many people never make it ... we hope they will help in taking us legally
The boat capsized before it reached the shore, and the Turkish coastguards saved them. They were around 40 persons in the boat, including women and children. My husband told me how people were exhausted and vomiting when they were pulled to safety.
Hoping for reunification
I intend to join him, God willing. I’m waiting for a family reunification visa. it took longer than we thought, but God willing it will be sorted.
I decided to leave, I wanted to take the risk too, but they closed entry to Greece. He cannot return to Lebanon because he left illegally and neither he nor I can go to Syria, as he could be arrested again.
I wish they would open the doors for us legally, because we intend to go anyway. We are losing money and lives, as many people never make it. They are not going to lose anything if they take us, and we are applying through the UN anyway. So we hope they will help in taking us legally.
MAP’s team are very grateful to Lubna and the other individuals who shared their stories for our report. Palestinian refugees from Syria must be afforded equal access to humanitarian protection, including access to government-sponsored resettlement schemes to Europe for vulnerable individuals and their families. To support this call, please sign our petition today
*Name has been changed to protect identity
Featured image: Electrical wires hang over an alleyway in a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon.