Lebanon: No new displacement but causes of past conflicts unresolved

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31 December 2012

About 44,600 IDPs remained in protracted displacement in Lebanon in 2012, principally Palestinian refugees and Lebanese displaced since the 1975 to 1990 civil war. The country’s stability wavered during the year by mounting tensions and violence linked to the conflict in Syria. There were armed clashes in Beirut and sectarian conflict between Sunni and Alawite groups broke out in Tripoli. No new internal displacements were reported in 2012.

In May 2007, around 27,000 Palestinians refugees were internally displaced when conflict between Fatah-al-Islam militants and the Lebanese army destroyed the Nahr el-Bared refugee camp and the surrounding area. Political deadlock and funding constraints have led to only limited reconstruction, and access to the camp is restricted by a complicated permit regime and harsh treatment at checkpoints. The estimated 23,000 IDPs unable to return have for the most part been living in the Baddawi camp and elsewhere in Tripoli. By the end of 2012, UNRWA had reconstructed 240 buildings at Nahr el-Bared and NRC had started to rebuild the nearby Mohajareen neighbourhood, which will house 111 families.

Of the 700,000 to 900,000 people internally displaced since the end of the civil war, the majority have settled in Beirut’s slums and informal settlements. Since its establishment in 1992 the Ministry of Displaced People has facilitated durable solutions and financial reparations, but its capacity is limited by the privatisation of real estate and the lack of reconciliation, particularly in the Shouf region.

In May 2012, the reconstruction of Beirut’s Harek-Hreik neighbourhood was completed, ending the displacement caused by the 33-day war between Hizbollah and Israel in 2006.

4 June 2009: Funding shortfall for demining in the way of durable solutions

Deminers clearing unexploded cluster bombs in south Lebanon might lose two thirds of their teams this year due to a drastic funding shortfall. Physical security remains a big concern for returnees in south Lebanon. Since the end of hostilities in 2006, the unexploded ordnance had already killed 40 people, injured a further 300 and left many permanently disabled. Of the estimated four million cluster bomblets dropped by Israeli forces on south Lebanon during the last few days of the 2006 war with Hezbollah, the consensus among deminers is that around half a million did not explode and several hundred thousand remain to be cleared.

In 2009 and 2010 no new internal displacements took place but a number of displacement situations persisted following three periods of conflict or violence: the 1975-1990 civil war and the related interventions by Israel until 2000 and Syria until 2005; the 33-day war of July 2006 between Israel and Hezbollah; and the armed conflict that led to the destruction of the Nahr el-Bared camp for Palestinian refugees in 2007. Sectarian violence also caused significant temporary displacement in 2008.

Lebanon does not have a national internal displacement policy. In successive situations of displacement, the response has been undertaken by state institutions, national societies, political parties, local communities and the international community; however the lack of a national policy has led to differences in the assistance provided to different displaced communities. (...)

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^{30 December 2010}