THE ACCESS TO QUALITY EDUCATION FOR SYRIAN REFUGEES IN LEBANON:

THE ACCESS TO QUALITY EDUCATION FOR SYRIAN REFUGEES IN LEBANON:

Education situation analysis and its relationship with the prevalence of child labour in Lebanon

Lorena Martin Redondo

December 2016

NOHA JOINT MASTER’S PROGRAMME IN INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN ACTION 2015/2016

First supervisor: Christopher Lamont - Groningen University

Second supervisor: Relinda Reiffers – Groningen University

This thesis is submitted for obtaining the Joint Master’s Degree in International

Humanitarian Action. By submitting the thesis, the author certifies that the text is from

his own hand, does not include the work of someone else unless clearly indicated, and

that the thesis has been produced in accordance with proper academic practices.

Abstract

Lebanon is host to more than one million refugees, having the highest concentration of refugees per capita in the world. Half of the refugee population in Lebanon are children in school age, and around half of them are out of school. There are different factors hampering the access to quality education for those Syrian refugees out of school and as well for the ones that are already enrolled in the public education system. There are several barriers inside the schools, such as an unfamiliar teaching language and curriculum, violence, bullying and discrimination, lack of space, lack of school opportunities in remote areas, lack of implementation of the education policies, among others. But there also are several barriers affecting education from outside the school, and those are the governmental measures on the refugees, the imposed conditions they have to cope with, the most relevant ones being the harder renewal conditions having to pay high renewal fees, getting a sponsorship and signing a pledge not to work, committing the adults to not work in Lebanon while legally registered under the UNHCR. These external factors are leading to an increase of poverty and decrease of livelihoods opportunities and therefore to an increase of child labour, making the children become the breadwinners of their families and missing years of school.

To understand how all those dynamics work together in Lebanon and how they are leading to negative coping mechanisms such as drop outs in education and child labour, a situation analysis of the education opportunities in Lebanon and a cross check with quality education standards is done. An analysis of the child labour situation and the reasons why it might be taking place is developed in order to see how the governmental measures are also leading to such situation.

The above described conditions are found to be of major impact on education for Syrian refugees. Education is every child’s right and the lack of access to quality education is leading to a worse situation for the refugees in which negative coping mechanisms are being put in place.

Key words: Quality education – child labour – Lebanon – Syrian refugees

Table of Contents Pages

i. Preface 6

ii. List of acronyms 7-8

iii. List of figures 9

iv. Terminology 10-11

1. Introduction 12

1.1 Background information 12-14

1.2 Literature review 14-16

1.3 Research questions 16

1.4 Research set up 16-19

1.5 Limitations and scope 19

2. Methodology 20

2.1 Data collection of primary and secondary data 20-21

2.2 Limitations and respondents 21-22

2.3 The interviews 22-23

2.4 Interviews respondents’ information 23-25

3. Chapter I – The Syrian displacement in Lebanon and its consequences 26

3.1 The displacement 26-28

3.2 The Lebanese layout 28-30

3.3 The conditions 30-34

3.4 The humanitarian response 34-35

3.5 The legal situation of the Syrian refugees in Lebanon 35-37

4. Chapter II – Education 38

4.1 The Lebanese Education System and the refugee educational opportunities 38-43

4.2 Crosschecking quality education 43-47

4.3 Non-formal education 48

4.4 Barriers to education 49-52

4.5 Curriculum and accreditation barriers 52-53

4.6 The humanitarian sector working on education 53-55

5. Chapter III - Child labour 56

5.1 Child labour before the Syrian crisis 56-59

5.2 Child labour after the Syrian crisis 59-65

6. Analysis of the research questions 66-71

7. Conclusions and recommendations 72-74

8. Bibliography 75-77

9. Annexes 78-79

i. Preface

When in complex situations, to pay attention to little details can shed light on bigger problems. That is the case of this research on Lebanon, a small country that hosts many details deserving to be paid attention to, in order to not leave any child behind.

I have to thank many people that helped me on my way of discovering those details and contributed to make me see the bigger problems. Starting with my supervisor C. K.

Lamont and second supervisor R. Reiffers, as well the NOHA teachers for being always

supportive, especially to Joost Herman and Jan Brommoundt. Also, to the individuals

that dedicated their time to talk with me, answer my questions and reflect together,

sharing a common goal, the future of the children. Among them Sarah Valerio, Carlos

Bohorquez and Roy Gebrayel. Last but not least I thank as well Save the Children

International Lebanon for the insights and knowledge I acquainted during my internship

with them. Ultimately a thank you to my NOHA classmates and to my family.

ii. List of Acronyms

3RP Regional Refugee and Resilience Plan ALP Accelerated Learning Programme BLN Basic Literacy and Numeracy CBO Community Based Organisation

CERD Center for Education Research and Development CRC Children’s Rights Convention

ECCD Early Childhood Care and Development ECE Early Childhood Education

FAO Food and Agriculture Organisation GOL Government of Lebanon

HRP Humanitarian Response Plan HRW Human Rights Watch

ICCPR Convention on the Rights of the Child IDP Internally Displaced Persons

ILO International Labour Organisation ILO International Labour Organisation

INGO International Non-Governmental Organisation

IPEC International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour IRC International Rescue Committee

ISIL Islamic State in Syria and Iraq

ITS Informal Tended Settlements

LAF Lebanese Armed Forces

LCRP Lebanon Crisis Response Plan

LES Lebanese Education System

MENA Middle East and North Africa MOL Ministry of Labour

MOSA Ministry of Social Affairs

NAP National Action Plan to Eliminate Worst Forms of Child Labour NFE Non-Formal Education

NGO Non-Governmental Organisation NLG No Lost Generation

NRC Norwegian Refugee Council OOSC Out of School Children OVs Outreach Volunteers PRC Palestinian Refugee Camps PSD Personal status Department PSS Psychosocial Support

PTSD Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

RACE Reaching All Children with Education SBC Street Based Children

SCI Save the Children International SDG Sustainable Development Goals

TVET Technical and Vocational Education and Training UNHCR United Nations High Commissioner of Refugees

UNICEF United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund UNRWA United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinians USJ Université Saint-Joseph

VASYR Vulnerability Assessment for Syrian Refugees WASH Water, Sanitation and Hygiene

WFP World Food Programme

iii. List of figures and annexes Figures:

• Page 13 - Syrian-Regional Map, The World Fact Book, Central Intelligence Agency, 2016 (20Sept) https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world- factbook/graphics/maps/sy-map.gif

• Page 20 - Interviews table

• Page 35 – Table of education system in Lebanon (UNICEF, 2015)

• Page 37 - Map of the 251 most vulnerable cadastres in Lebanon 2015 (UNHCR, 2015)

• Page 49 - figures (Watkins, 2016)

o Lebanon’s education appeal is underfunded

o Financing for school practices falls far short of requirements

• Page 53 – Table of observations about places where children work in Lebanon (Osserian, 2012)

Annexes:

1. Registered Syrian refugees – cumulative flows (monthly data) (Migration Policy Centre, n.d.)

2. Letter of support from USJ to conduct interviews in Lebanon

iv. Terminology

For the ease and unified reading and understanding, some terms have to be defined beforehand as they will appear often throughout the paper:

- Refugee

The 1951 Refugee Convention considers refugee any person outside her/his country of nationality, fleeing armed conflict and persecution. This convention defines and protects refugees. As Lebanon is not signatory of the convention nor its protocol, Syrian refugees are considered “displaced”. The use of the word refugee in this paper does not refer only to the people registered under UNHCR in Lebanon, but to all Syrians in Lebanon displaced by the war in Syria. When specifying “registered refugees” it refers to the data of registered Syrians under the UNHCR system.

- Displaced

As Lebanon is not part of the 1951 Refugee Convention, the country considers Syrian people fleeing from Syria to Lebanon as “displaced”. The word displaced will be used for such context and for the meaning of displacement that according to UNESCO is the forced movement of people from their locality or environment and occupational activities caused by a number of factors, the most common being armed conflict, among others. (UNESCO, 2016)

- Children

Lebanon is party to the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child and to the Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, so the definition of children that is used in this paper will be the same as the one that appears in the 1989 Convention on the rights of the Child, such as any person who has not reached the age of eighteen. (OHCHR, 1990)

- Quality education

The Convention for the Rights of the Child established the grounds for the right to education. Quality education refers to education in a manner that ensures the students are healthy, provides a safe environment, relevant curricula, child-centred approaches and complete outcomes. This concept will be explored in detail within this paper.

(UNICEF, 2000)

- Child labour

According to ILO child labour is commonly defined as work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and that is harmful to physical and mental development. (ILO, 2012)

- Children of the streets

Those children living in the streets, regardless what they do for living.(ILO et al., 2015) - Children on the streets

Children who work on the streets and return home with their families after work. (ILO et al., 2015)

- Informal Tended Settlements –ITS-

Tent settlements that are not put in place officially by the government and the UNHCR but pieces of land controlled by a landlord who gets a rental payment from the refugees that are allowed to build their tents in that place.

- Illegal

The term illegal in this paper will be used as per the literature’s use of the term and in

all cases in what refers to the Lebanese law. Having stated this, note that the writer of

this paper acknowledges the wrongfulness of the term and considers that no one is

illegal.

1. Introduction

1.1 Background information

Six years after the so-called Arab Spring, many of the MENA peoples found themselves in a different political, social and economic situation, inspired by revolution aspirations of change and democratic rights, that against previous expectations, many countries saw those revolutionary civil movements translated into outcomes of more poverty, corruption, police or militarized states and even war. In 2010 the world saw how Tunisia triggered the so-called Arab Spring, a revolutionary wave that in 2011 made other peoples to rise and stand up for their rights and dignity. Protests arose during 2011 in several parts of the MENA region, as Oman, Yemen, Egypt, Morocco and Syria.

The uprising in Syria, demanding democratic reforms and governmental changes escalated quickly into a civil war, saw its peak entering 2012 when the Syrian Government started the bombardment of Homs and other cities. This conflict has different armed groups and what used to be the opposition has now developed into a mix of groups with different goals, among them terrorist groups as the Islamic State and Jabhat Al Nusra, and international involvement as Russia supporting the Assad Regime in the fight against the so-called Islamic State –ISIL-, and United States -and other Arab countries- supporting the opposition to the Syrian regime and fighting against the so called Islamic State. (BBC, 2016). The US, in its fight against terrorism and its possible threat to the American people, came to take part in this conflict by displaying an airstrike campaign against ISIL, supporting the forces fighting ISIL on the ground, putting in place counterterrorism strategies to prevent ISIL attacks and providing humanitarian assistance to innocent civilians displaced by ISIL. (Hudson, 2014)

According to the United Nations –UN- this war is in its 5 ^th year of ongoing conflict, and has caused high numbers of civilian casualties and infrastructure damages in many parts of the country, being one of the biggest humanitarian crises in the world nowadays.

Taking a look at the numbers, since 2011 more than 250,000 people have died due to

the war, and over a million people have been injured. This war has motivated the

biggest displacement crisis in history, 6.5 million people are internally displaced within

the country and 4.8 million people have forcibly left Syria. In 2016, according to latest

UN figures, 13.5 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance, being children

half of that number. More than 8 million people in Syria are unable to meet their basic

food needs and a 70% are without regular access to safe drinking water (UN, 2016). The

Humanitarian access to these people is constrained, having several areas in the country that are besieged or hard-to-reach areas and access to aid is virtually impossible. This conflict and its warring parties are violating international law, humanitarian law and human rights law. (Narwani, 2015; UN.org, 2014)

1 Around 11 million people have been displaced because of the war in Syria either to other parts of the country, or outside its borders. The MENA region near-by countries have experienced first-hand the consequences of this humanitarian crisis, witnessing big displacement waves during these 5 years.

Countries like Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, Turkey and Egypt are hosting big numbers of Syrian and Palestinian refugees displaced by the war in Syria. According to the Syrian Regional Refugee Response until the date of writing –September 2016- the total number of registered refugees in the region has reached 4,819,598 thus far. Turkey is the country that is hosting over a half of this number, 2,726,980 registered refugees in a country that its population is around the 80 million people. Lebanon follows Turkey hosting 1,033,513 registered refugees in a country of around 6 million people, being the highest concentration of refugees per capita in the world. Jordan follows Lebanon hosting 656,400 registered refugees, then Iraq with 239,008 registered refugees, Egypt has 114,911 registered refugees and around 29,275 registered refugees in north Africa. Even though Jordan, Turkey and Iraq governments have set up refugee camps while the Lebanese government have refused to do so, only 10% of the regional refugees are hosted in official refugee camps, and the 90% remaining are in urban, peri-urban and rural areas, being 41% of them living in substandard shelters such as unfinished or abandoned buildings or informal camps (OCHA, 2016a) ² .

Among all these numbers, children constitute a big part of them. According to UNICEF half of the refugee population in Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan are children, being 6 million children affected by the war in Syria and 2,536,316 children outside Syria refugees. By 2016 almost one million out of those two and a half million refugee children in the region are out of school, this, according to 3RP, is due to the lower

1 Syrian-Regional Map, The World Fact Book, Central Intelligence Agency, 2016

2 For refugees flows in the region since 2011 until 2016 see Annex 1

levels of access to non-formal education.(UN, 2016)

There is on-going research done by academics and I/NGOs due to the rapid changing situation since the Syrian conflict started. I/NGOs and UN agencies and constantly giving updates in report forms mainly, and many of them will be used to base this dissertation. Old and up-to-day reports will be used from several different I/NGOS and UN agencies as well as literature written on the topic, research works, thesis and other academic related work done.

1.2 Literature review

Almost 70 literature resources were used to support this thesis research. Different types of resources were used, as governmental official circulars, I/NGOs reports, newspaper articles, research reports, as well as academic literature. The main sources used were reports and research reports from UNICEF, OCHA, UNHCR, NRC, HRW, ILO and MEHE.

To give an introduction, background information and situation of the refugees in Lebanon the HRW, NRC and AI provide a great insight on the refugees’ legal situation in Lebanon and the problems they face in the country with new residency rules, restrictions, human rights violations, barriers to obtain livelihoods and an income taking place in Lebanon. HRW’s research report “I Just Wanted to be Treated like a Person.

How Lebanon’s Residency Rules Facilitate Abuse of Syrian Refugees” gives a valuable input on how the new residency requirements for refugees to legalize their residency status in Lebanon are abusive, hard to meet and lead them to a more vulnerable situation. Also, HRW’s article talks about a non-often spoken topic, the curfews on refugees, taking place in many municipalities of the country. NRC as well touches upon the legal situation of the refugees in its report “Drivers of Despair. Refugee protection failures in Jordan and Lebanon” and in “The consequences of limited legal status for Syrian refugees in Lebanon”. NRC provides with additional inputs on the barriers that refugees face when trying to undertake the birth registration for their new-born babies in Lebanon in its report “The challenges of birth registration in Lebanon for refugees from Syria”. Amnesty International covers the restrictions on refugee protection and the human rights impact of those restrictions in its report “Pushed to the Edge. Syrian refugees face increased restrictions in Lebanon”.

When talking about the non-refoulement principle and legal and international protection

mechanisms for refugees UNHCR literature on the 1951 Refugee Convention is used, and it is examined through the view of Alexander Betts on the refugee system, that is expressed on his book “Survival Migration. Failed Governance and the crisis of displacement”.

When giving an overview of the Lebanese geographical and social setup, data from UNHCR on the 251 most vulnerable cadastres and OCHA on the governorates profile is used in order to set a clear picture on the country, and to ease the understanding of the reader when coming across regions or cities names.

For the education chapter the most relevant sources used are MEHE documents as the

“Quality education for growth national education strategy framework”, and “Reaching all Children with Education”, as well as the UNHCR and MEHE campaign on “Back to School campaign”, that sets a base in order to understand the current situation of education in Lebanon.

In contrast, I have crosschecked the quality of education provided in Lebanon with an UNICEF standard on quality education alongside with the findings research reports on quality education and the barriers that Syria refugee children are facing to get access to quality education in Lebanon, such as the HRW’s report “Growing up without an education. Barriers to education for Syrian refugee children in Lebanon” and the accreditation opportunities for Syrian children found in “Curriculum, Accreditation, and Certification for Syrian Children. In Syria, Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt”.

To explain the child labour situation in Lebanon, before and after the Syrian crisis, ILO reports were used as “Action against child labour in Lebanon. A mapping of policy and normative initiatives” and “Children living and working on the streets in Lebanon.

Profile and magnitude”. To see what Lebanon has done regarding child labour the

“National Action Plan to Eliminate Worst Forms of Child Labour in Lebanon by 2016”

was used. The paper by Kareem Shaheen called “Adults before their time. Syria's refugee children toil in the fields of Lebanon” adds more insights to the topic. To see how this affects children’s education and vice versa “Barriers to education for Syrian refugee children in Lebanon. Out of school children report” done by REACH and UNHCR is used, as well it explains the role and impact of the community leaders in child labour engagement and drop out of school.

The above-mentioned sources are the main ones that supported this research, but also

the rest of sources used were of utmost importance to complete the research with necessary information and data, and they can be found listed in section number 8.

1.3 Research question/s

The goal of this dissertation is to shed light on two topics, education and child labour, by understanding them as two dynamics that go hand by hand in the case of Lebanon, in order to see how the education of Syrian refugees is affected by the child labour situation that Syrian children are going through in Lebanon. There is an understanding approach in place to see how the situation has evolved and at which point it is at the moment, to understand the Lebanese educational system available for the Syrian refugees and to be able to identify the impact it has on Syrian children working instead of studying. The research question is not meant to represent or generalize a situation but inform about those two events and the way they interplay with each other.

By giving an explanation of what is taking place in regards to education and child labour in this paper, the aim is to, through an understating approach of the situation, answer two main questions and a correlative one.

1.- What is the situation regarding Syrian refugee access to quality education in Lebanon?

2.- Has child labour increased because of the Syrian crisis in Lebanon? And how?

3.- How is the lack of quality education leading to child labour in Lebanon?

Education and child labour are two topics of importance for society and for children’s rights. Education is part of our fundamental rights, the right to education, and child labour is one of the deprivation of rights no children should suffer from. Both two might be well correlated, as we will see throughout this paper, but in order to understand how the Syrian crisis situation has led to an impact in these two cases and how they interplay with each other, it has to be approached from a holistic perspective, in which other factors will be explained to understand the dynamics of education and child labour, at the same time that we understand that both are part of a bigger problem, in which sociological, economic and political factors intervene in a great manner. The development of content of this paper is explained in the following section in detail.

1.4 Research set up

The thesis starts with an explanation of terms that need to be described beforehand to

ease the reading and understanding of the paper.

The introduction is divided in five sections, the first gives background information to provide a base of events to what will come afterwards. The second section deals with the literature review used for the paper. The third section explains the goal of the thesis and poses the three main research questions, explaining why they were chosen. The forth section is the present research set up that verbally explains each part of the thesis.

The fifth section tackles the limitations and scope of the thesis.

Point 2 explains the methodology used, divided in three sections, 2.1 covers the data collection of primary and secondary literature review and 2.2 the limitations of the thesis as time constrains or the conduction of interviews, and a table of the respondents’

interviews done is included. As well, it explains how the interviews structure was, the questions relating education, the questions relating child labour and the questions interrelating both of them. Point 2.3 explains how the interviews were deigned to respond to the main three research questions and 2.4 gives information about the interview participants and the work their agencies/organisations are doing in Lebanon.

Chapter I deals with the Syrian displacement in Lebanon and its consequences. Starting

by explaining the displacement of Syrian people in Lebanon, giving an explanation of

how the displacement took place and giving updated numbers of the displacement, how

Lebanon responded to the influx, and how this affected the country. Point 3.2 explains

the Lebanese layout in terms of the different geographical areas and the situations

taking place in each one, levels of poverty, number of refugees they host, so when the

different geographical areas of Lebanon appear throughout the paper, the reader can be

aware of what is the general situation of the area. Point 3.3 covers the situation and

conditions the Syrian refugees have in Lebanon, since the refugees entered in Lebanon

and how they did it, passing through their permit requirements and conditions, renewal

procedures of their residency permit for those registered and not registered, how they

follow those requirements and the abuses that take place regarding their status. The

work situations and access they get, and what was promised by the government in that

regard to be changed or improved. Among all those conditions the birth registration was

included as well because of the importance of risking a stateless status for the new-born

babies. Point 3.4 explains what the humanitarian organisations under the UN umbrella

are doing to respond to the Syrian crisis in Lebanon and tackled the main humanitarian

responses taking place. Point 3.5 covers the legality of the Syrian refugees in Lebanon

in terms the right to flee human rights deprivations and how Lebanon is complying with international law principles as the principle of non-refoulement, and how is Lebanon applying the international responsibility of protection it has.

Chapter II is a chapter dedicated to the Education in Lebanon, it starts by giving an introduction of the situation and is divided in six points. Point 4.1 gives an explanation of the Lebanese Education System and the education opportunities the Syrian refugees have in the country and the efforts made by the Lebanese government to provide education for all children in Lebanon. Point 4.2 uses an international quality education framework to contrast if the education in Lebanon complies with that quality standard.

Point 4.3 covers the non-formal education situation and how this sector is supporting refugees on their education opportunities to transit to the formal school system. Point 4.4 counters what was said before about the education opportunities for refugees by identifying the barriers found for the refugees to access quality education. Point 4.5 explains in more detail the curriculum Syrian refugees are confronted with in Lebanon, the accreditation opportunities and other barriers they are facing. Point 4.6 covers what the humanitarian sectors is doing in the educational response for Syrian refugees and how they are able to support the Lebanese government in this regard.

Chapter III is dedicated to the second topic of the thesis, which is child labour. It starts by a brief introduction and is divided on point 5.1 how it was the child labour situation before the Syrian crisis in Lebanon and in point 5.2 how it is at the moment after the Syrian crisis. It explains the government measures taken and national plans put in place to combat child labour, the main works children are undertaking in the country, how they are pushed to this situation and the role of the community leaders in this issue, as well as how the humanitarian crisis Lebanon is going through and the conditions refugees are facings is leading to an increase of child labour.

Point 6 analyses the three research questions by answering them taking into account the findings in the literature as well as in the interviews. Question number three identifies how the two previous questions relate to each other by identifying two main issues and the reasons for them to exist.

Point 7 takes into account all what has been written and makes conclusions and

recommendations to the Government of Lebanon, the International Community and

humanitarian actors in Lebanon.

Point 8 has the reference list of all the resources used in the paper and point 9 has two annexes, a chart and a consent letter from USJ to conduct interviews.

1.5 Limitations and Scope

The limitations of the main purpose of this research, which is to link the access to education with the prevalence of child labour, are obviously many, as there is not only one reason that leads to child labour, but there are many other factors intervening, as for example the economic situation of the families, the human exploitation by mafias, or the pledge not to work that refugees were obliged to sign to be legally registered in Lebanon, increasing therefore child labour under 16 years old. But in order to focus in only one of those factors, education being one of the most important human rights, and a tool for the children to have a better future and in many cases a second opportunity, access to quality education will be the cornerstone for the research to understand what is the prevalence of child labour in Lebanon.

The methods used are, as mentioned before, the use of data collection through different types of literature and information directly from the field that I have got through different interviews and meetings. Interviews were done with different stakeholders on the response for education and child protection of Syrian refuges in Lebanon, as I/NGOs and UN agencies working in education and child protection in Lebanon.

2. Methodology

The research for this Master’s dissertation took place while a research placement at University Saint Joseph of Beirut Lebanon, and during a couple more months afterwards. During that time, I had the opportunity to volunteer with an International NGO that works closely with Syrian refugee children and vulnerable Lebanese families, an experience that allowed me to get to know the reality in first hand, through research work for that INGO and through field visits to their projects and conversations with refugees themselves. The volunteer work I did was not part of this thesis research but it no doubt it gave me a valuable insight that made me reconsider the topic of my thesis and to find the necessity of writing on the main two topics of this research: access to quality education and child labour. The placement at Saint Joseph University gave me the opportunity to contact a few key informants for my research, as I conducted interviews with different specialists on education and/or child protection from different organisations.

2.1 Data collection of primary and secondary literature review

Data collection has been mainly done through internet accessible literature, accessing to all the recent reports that have been done of the main topics of the research, as I/NGOS and UN agencies write constant updates on the refugee situation and do up-to-date quality research reports. Surveys or statistical studies were not done for the research, but interviews and analysis of published materials were done.

Interviews were done with one UN agency, UNICEF which is the United Nations

International Children’s Fund, that has the mandate to address the needs of children and

women in developing countries and has a main role in Lebanon for both education and

child protection sectors. The interviewed person from UNICEF was Carlos Bohorquez,

Child Protection Specialist for UNICEF Lebanon. Another interview was with Sara

Valerio, Program Development Advisor for Child Protection of the NGO War Child

Holland that is working in Lebanon responding to the Syrian emergency, working

mainly in child protection and psychosocial support activities in Lebanon for Syrian

refugees as well as Palestinians refugees and Lebanese host-community. Another

interview took place with Roy Gebrayel, Regional Education Officer, and the support of

Fatima Alkhattib, a psychologist, from the NGO Jesuit Refugee Service, a catholic

organisation that is involved mainly in psychosocial support activities in impoverished

urban areas of the country.

Interviews were really helpful in order to identify the main concerns of those different stakeholders in country. The interviews took place in their headquarters offices. The interviewees were informed of the purpose and contents of the research and gave their consent to be voice-recorded, but Fatima Alkhattib preferred to not take part in the recorded interviews. Other key informants were contacted to conduct interviews with them, as representatives of the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Labour, Ministry of Social Affairs, and other I/NGOs representatives, but no answer was provided or had no availability to set a meeting interview.

The benefits of being hands-on in the field, involved in the refugee response through an internship, the interviews I did with different key-informants and the research done through all the gathered literature were the perfect combination of points of view that I wanted to have for such a research work.

2.2 Limitations and Respondents

The limitations to this research were mainly time constrains, as for example during summer time while the research mobility, many key informants were on holiday. The biased that can be found in this research relies upon the biases taken from the different sources and its political views, although the analysis is done on my own, it is clear that certain political views can be deducted.

Another limitation was to leave out the Palestinian refugees’ case due to the necessity of narrowing down the topic and focus in one group of research, for this case, Syrian refugees. This does not mean that the situation of the Palestinians in Lebanon is lees worrisome, in the contrary it is really dire, but their refugee status and access to services is provided by UNRWA and their situation is not the same as for Syrian refugees, which would lead to another topic research, hopefully in in further stages.

By the time of submitting this paper another school year -2016/2017- has already started and some measures are on the way to be changed by the government, as in November a new president and therefore a new Government and Parliament is being formed and changes will take place. For that reason, this paper will only cover until the 2015/2016 school year events.

The key informants were chosen to give a perspective, from humanitarian workers of

UN agencies and I/NGOs. A further development of this thesis would require deeper

research and interviews with key stakeholders as the Ministry of Labour, the Child

Labour Unit, the MEHE and CERD, the Ministry of Public Health, MOSA and the Higher Council for Childhood, that due to time constrains during the research mobility was not possible.

For the interviews, key informants from different civil society and agencies were contacted. Among them MEHE, MOSA, JRS, UNHCR, UNICEF, Ana Aqra, World Vision, ILO, AMEL, Makhsoumi foundation, Inara, Kafa. Only three of them were successful in availability to meet during the summer while my research mobility, which are three key stakeholders in Lebanon, two civil society NGOs and one UN agency leading in the field of education and child labour.

Interviews

Interview Number Name Interviewee Organisation/position Date of the interview

Interview N1 Sarah Valerio

War Child Holland Program Development Advisor, Child

Protection.

22 ^nd August 2016

Interview N2 Carlos Bohorquez

UNICEF Lebanon - Child Protection

Specialist

24 ^th August 2016

Interview N3 Roy Gebrayel

Jesuit Refugee Service MENA – Regional Education

Officer

26 ^th August 2016

2.3 The interviews

The interviews’ questionnaires were approved by the assigned supervisor at Saint Joseph University and were supported by a letter of consent from USJ to conduct my interviews ³ . The questions were divided in three parts. The first part is around questions related to education and the work that the interviewees were doing in that field. The

3 See annex number 2

second one are questions related to child labour and their involvement in that field and the third part are questions that combine both topics. The questions were made to set up a base on relevant information leading to a broader conversation with the key informants, letting them the space to express themselves and add more information as they would consider necessary. The interviews were of approximately one hour each, and served me to have a clear picture of the refugee situation taking place in Lebanon.

Although the main information given by the key informants was already included in the literature used for this research, the useful and valuable additions they did to that literature are scattered alongside the paper to give an extra value to the chapters and topics from the perspective of professionals working in education and child protection.

The questions made were the following:

- Education related questions:

1. What is the position of your I/NGO in the role of the education system in Lebanon?

2. What is your NGO doing to improve the access to education for Syrian refugees?

3. What do you think that needs to be improved to ensure the access to education for Syrian refugees? By who?

- Child labour related questions:

1. What is the position of your I/NGO on the role of child labour in Lebanon?

2. What is your I/NGO doing to avoid child labour (especially for Syrian refugees)?

3. In your opinion what do you think that needs to be improved by the to avoid child labour? By who?

4. In our opinion what could be other factors contributing to child labour?

5. What are your suggestions to avoid child labour effectively?

- Both education and child labour questions:

1. In your opinion what is the relation between access to quality education and child labour?

2. In your opinion does lack of access to quality education can be a trigger to child labour?

2.4 Interview respondents’ information

The participants work in different organisations, as will be described below:

Sarah Valerio works as a Program Development Advisor at the Child Protection sector

of War Child Holland Lebanon. “War Child is an independent and impartial,

international nongovernmental organisation investing in a peaceful future for children

and young people affected by armed conflict.” (War Child Holland, 2012) In the field of education in Lebanon they are developing a methodology for Early Childhood Education, and their main focus is Psychosocial support –PSS- and child protection mainstreaming. In the last years, they are more focused on education providing support to local organisations and UNRWA teachers at the Palestinian camps in primary and secondary education. They are starting a partnership with Madaad –local NGO- where they provide PSS for children. They are part of the Education Working Group involved in the Back to School campaign. NGOs tackling Psychosocial Support as War Child Holland are raising in the country, as the bigger importance that PSS is taking into account that, as mention in chapter 2.2, the psychological distress Syrian children suffered in Syria and are suffering in Lebanon in the host communities. War Child Holland focuses on PSS providing support to other local organisations, UN agencies, developing partnerships to focus in Early Childhood Education. They take part in the Back to School Campaign, carrying out awareness sessions with the parents and doing psychosocial awareness sessions across all sectors. They do follow-ups within their case management and monitor dropouts and make referral cases. In what regards child labour War Child Holland is working on the identification of cases and referrals as well as awareness raising with caregivers. They provide sessions to the parents on how to prevent and protect their children from worst forms of child labour and what does it imply, making a link at the same time with the importance of education. They form part of the UNICEF programming on PSS so they report on child labour cases to UNICEF, which is focusing more this year on child labour and child marriage and as well to contribute to the efforts done by other NGOs as IRC and Mercy Corps on their work on child labour in Lebanon. ⁴

Carlos Bohorquez works as a child protection specialist at UNICEF Lebanon. UNICEF is the United Nations International Children’s Fund. “UNICEF is prioritizing the most vulnerable children, responding to the needs of affected children, their families and communities in 182 localities - selected on the basis of poverty data, influx of refugees, etc. UNICEF's approach is to support both refugees from Syria - including Palestinians and Lebanese returnees -as well as the most marginalized Lebanese communities-.”

(UNICEF, n.d.)

4 Information given at Interview N1

UNICEF’s main role in Lebanon is to serve as a link to support the government and ministries in Lebanon. They support the MEHE as part of the education activities and campaigns described in this paper, the MOSA with the National Action Plan on prevention and response through services within the Social Development Centers. As well UNICEF also supports the ministries technically and financially. They give support to civil society organisations on outreach activities, awareness sessions, positive parenting trainings and PSS. Child labour is tackled within the child protection programming and mainstreaming. They give support to the MOL on child labour activities giving support to the ILO and the NAP. UNICEF has at the moment in Lebanon an internal strategy of 15 months to combat child labour, focusing on prevention and awareness, and response to the worst forms of child labour in agriculture, SBC and children associated with armed groups. ⁵

Roy Gebrayel is a regional education officer at Jesuit Refugee Service Lebanon. “The Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) is an international Catholic organisation with a mission to accompany, serve and advocate on behalf of refugees and other forcibly displaced persons. JRS undertakes services at national and regional levels with the support of an international office in Rome. Founded in November 1980 as a work of the Society of Jesus, JRS was officially registered on 19 March 2000 at the Vatican State as a foundation.” (JRS, n.d.) JRS started in Lebanon in 2012 doing ALP programing when the government was not in control of those activities yet. They use a holistic approach on education and psychosocial support altogether, working also with the parents. They focus in awareness sessions with the parents and life skills and vocational training as well as in PSS activities ⁶ .

5 Information given at Interview N2

6 Information given at Interview N3

3. Chapter I. The Syrian displacement in Lebanon and its consequences 3.1 The displacement

The war in Syria is “more brutal and destructive than the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and has turned into the worst humanitarian disaster since the end of cold war” ⁷ There are 13,5 million people still in need within Syria, and more than 4,7 million Syrian refugees are in neighbouring countries (Mercy Corps, 2016). Given the last numbers on the Syrian influx in Lebanon, this country has been considered the country with the highest per capita concentration of refugees, counting with 4,5 million citizens, and around 1,1 million refugees in country. This number is the number registered under the UNHCR system, that comprises a number that remains pretty much uncertain due to several factors, as the loss of legal status or the closing border policy set up by the Lebanese government at the beginning of 2015. The registration process, the border legislation and the renewal procedures will be explained with detail further on in the following point.

Lebanon did receive in the past another influx of refugees, the Palestinians that came to Lebanon after 1948 and 1967 (Danish Immigration Service, 2014), and for that influx of people seeking haven in Lebanon, refugee camps were set alongside the country and the UN agency that handle them was the United Nations Agency of Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees –UNRWA-. Lebanon since then is home for around 400,000 Palestinians, and they played a key role in the Lebanese civil war that lasted for 15 years (Shaheen, 2015). That Palestinian refugee experience for Lebanon did not result to be a positive experience and this time, regarding what to do with the Syrians that were coming to country, through the lack of policy and political will, Lebanon discarded the idea of setting permanent refugee camps for Syrians, due to Lebanon’s sectarian nature. The influx of one million Syrian of majority Sunni would have caused a sectarian destabilization. That had an impact in the country, as Informal Temporary Settlements –ITS- were emerging mainly alongside the Bekaa Valley and North areas, counting with more than a thousand ITS. Therefore, refugees from Syria started to settle in those ITS mainly located in rural areas, and in urban areas and cities, where finding a home is challenging, facing high rents or having to live in unfinished and/or abandoned buildings, garages, etc. Despite the high number of ITS, it only constitutes 18% of

7 Said Antonio Guterres, UN High Commisioner for Refugees on the World Refugee Day, 2013.

Syrian dwelling, as the vast majority resides in apartments. Lebanon is 87% urbanized, and refugees look for urban setting to live in due to the new restrictions for refugees in terms of movement, right to work, visa renewals and curfews. (Kabalan, 2016)

This new influx of dwellers in Lebanon has to be understood by taking into account that before the Syrian displacement, Lebanon had already one third of its population -28%

of the Lebanese population- living below US$4 a day, and was foreseen that with the new Syrian population in country, around 200,000 people will be added to live below the poverty line. (Kabalan, 2016) According to the Global Competitiveness Report of 2016 Lebanon globally ranks 3 ^rd in debts and plummets in health and education, and occupies the 52 ^nd position in health and primary education, escalating 22 positions since 2014. (Mazloum, 2016) Before the crisis, Lebanon was already struggling to provide basic services to its citizens, the infrastructure sector was suffering and the social welfare has just worsened after the influx in country (Schöpfer, 2015). According to the World Bank’s 2013 assessment, the influx of Syrians has strained some sectors, as the health and education sectors, and has exacerbated the already dire labour market conditions and challenged the delicate societal and inter-communal balance in Lebanon.

(World Bank, 2013) The political instability Lebanon is as well to be highlighted as the two main sectarian groups –Shi’a and Sunni- have polarized Lebanese politics. Thus, there is a division between pro-Syrian and anti-Syrian –Sunni vs. Shi’a-. We can see this represented in the main two political parties, March 14 ^th considered anti-Syrian, and March 8 ^th considered pro-Syrian. (Schöpfer, 2015) Therefore, the events happening in Syria, are impacting Lebanon in many ways as described, but as well have polarized the Lebanese political system, in which refugees struggle to find protection.

Human Rights Watch found that Lebanon have set up curfews in at least 45 localities for Syrian refugees, what appears to be illegal under International Human Rights Law and the Lebanese Law. (Human Rights Watch, 2014a) The impact of these measures upon the refugees will be discussed later on focusing mainly in its effects on the education opportunities for children.

The Syrian war has affected Lebanon in a severe way. The Lebanese economy has been

affected as well as its public services. The burden of the refugees and the loss of

revenues has cost Lebanon US$13,1 billion, and it has received from international

donors only $3-5 billion to assist the Syrian refugees. Among those strained public

services education is in a dire situation. Within the situation described above, Syrian

children are affected greatly by the Syrian war and its consequences. Data has shown that among the one million refugees in Lebanon, half of them are children. And from that 500,000 school-aged children, approximately half of them are out of school.(Human Rights Watch, 2016a)

3.2 The Lebanese layout

At the time of writing, autumn 2016, Syrian refugees are all over the country, more localized in some areas than others, but concentrated mainly in impoverished urban areas of the country, or rural areas where work in agriculture and living in ITS is feasible. The different governorates and areas of Lebanon are going to be explained in order to paint a clear picture when reading this paper. The situation is complex but easy to understand if all the concepts are broken down and there is a good general explanation of the country’s situation when reading the main bulk of the paper.

Lebanon is composed of four regions, each one has its own governorates –eight in total- and municipalities. These are Beirut and Mount Lebanon, North and Akkar, South and Nabatieh and Bekaa and Baalbek/Hermel governorates.

The governorates of Beirut and Mount Lebanon host half of Lebanon’s population – around 2 million people-. These two governorates are mainly urban and peri-urban, and Beirut is the administrative and economic capital of the country, it hosts over 305,687 registered Syrian refugees. Mount Lebanon hosts one quarter of the identified deprived persons, because of either poverty or displacement. As these two governorates are mainly urban/peri-urban, most of the refugees live in urban contexts, being only the 4,7% of Syrian refugees living in substandard shelter and 4,3% in collective shelters.

The refugees that are in this area as mentioned are highly vulnerable, and the urban

environment does not benefit them, there are high costs mainly in the rental prices, that

has raised around 45% compared to other places in Lebanon and therefore the debts of

urban refugees is around a 40% higher and there is high dependency in humanitarian

aid, mainly food vouchers. (OCHA, 2016b). Beirut and Mount Lebanon have had

suffered some events lately such as terrorist threats and several arrests of sex trafficking

rings. The latest cases of human trafficking happened in March 2016, where 75 Syrian

girls were beaten and forced into prostitution in the north of Beirut. Before the Syrian

crisis, human trafficking of Syrian woman and girls was already happening in Lebanon,

but after the stroke of the civil war, Syrian woman and girls have remained more

vulnerable, and rely on other sources of survival, as these networks promise them work and safe passage to Lebanon. (Middle East Eye, 2016)

The Northern area of Lebanon is composed of two governorates, Akkar and the North.

This area is one of the most deprived regions, it has severe levels of poverty and number of refugees that adds to the worst unemployment rates of the country -around 60%-.

There are one million people living in the northern area, 70% of whom are under the poverty line. The capital of the North is Tripoli, the second largest city in the country, being the rest mainly agricultural. Akkar is bordering Syria along 100 km border. North is an unstable region, due to the border with Syria and the historical armed conflicts, the latest in 2007, the battle in Nahr el Bared between the Lebanese Armed Forces –LAF- and non-state actors, as well as clashes between Sunni and Alawite communities in Jabal Mohsen and Bab el Tabbaneh from 2008 to 2015. This has had consequences upon the refugees, the LAF have evicted more than a thousand refugees in 2015 under preventive measures of security. There are 256,126 registered Syrian refugees and there are scattered alongside the urban settings and the agricultural areas in more than 500 ITS. This area has had a big influx of refugees due to the proximity with the border, and has seen more than 4,000 people crossing per day. (OCHA, 2016c)

The Southern area of Lebanon is composed of two governorates, South and Nabatieh.

There are more than one million people living in the southern area, 12,907 registered Syrian refugees and more than 150 ITS. Although it hosts the highest number of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, as it embraces 5 of the 12 Palestinian refugee camps - PRCs- with over 170,000 registered Palestinian refugees. The south has witnessed several conflicts, the latest violent events took place in March 2016, a fighting between factions, as well the Israeli occupation in 2000, armed clashes in 2015 in a PRC and the latest conflict in 2006, from which remnants are still present like minefields and anti- personnel mines. The southern region compared to the other regions of the country has the lowest rates of food insecurity and children out of school and no longer has the highest prevalence of coping mechanisms, but the situation remains challenging for the refugees to cope and child labour and lack of access to education still persists. (OCHA, 2016d)

The eastern region is denominated the Bekaa Valley, and it embraces two governorates,

Baalbek/Hermel in the northern part of the valley and Bekaa in the south. It is an

agricultural area that relies mainly on agricultural production. This valley compromises

the largest border with Syria. The northern border still remains unstable due to the conflict taking place in bordering areas with Syria. There are 938,656 people living in Bekaa and Baalbek/Hermel, from whom 365,555 are registered Syrian refugees, and they host the biggest concentration of ITS in the country with more than 2,500 ITS, which is a host rate of the 69% of all ITS in country. It is considered that a 41% of those refugees are severely vulnerable and 35% highly vulnerable. The situation gets worse when winter comes, winterization being one of the predominant humanitarian issues.

Evictions are taking place in the Bekaa Valley, specially alongside military areas, having being evicted in 2015 around 130 ITS, affecting 14,648 refugees. (OCHA, 2016e)

3.3. The conditions

The conditions of the Syrian refugees in Lebanon have to be explained in detail in order to understand the following major points of this paper. Every detail of their conditions in country is of utmost importance as they are leading to a dire condition to survive in Lebanon. The efforts made by NGOs and the government are not underestimated in this paper, on the contrary, they are appreciated and acknowledged, but the important violations of international law and human rights law happening in Lebanon have to be explained to further elaborate and analyse the situation of the access to education and the situation of child labour in Lebanon.

Before the Syrian crisis, crossing to Lebanon through an official border would grant an entry coupon, renewable every six months with the payment of an annual US$200 fee per person. At the beginning of the year 2015 the Lebanese government, in concrete the Interior Ministry issued a decree that required entry permits for Syrian people entering in Lebanon, intending to stop the influx of refugees. Therefore, Syrians without a justified entry permit -exceptions under certain categories, none of them are for those fleeing armed conflict, violence or persecution (NRC and IRC, 2015)- would not be able to enter in Lebanon, the open-door policy that Lebanon had until 2015 was no longer in play. (Human Rights Watch, 2016b)

It is to be acknowledged the efforts that the Lebanese government made opening the

border for Syrians feeling the war, as Syrian people did open their houses when

Lebanon was enduring a war in its territory and Lebanese people were looking for a safe

haven. It is logical that a country where one third of its population are refugees, taking

into account the conditions that Lebanon had before the Syrian crisis, would not be able

to cope with such influx in the country. But the fact of closing the border in May 2015 to stop registering more people, has had its consequences, but has not stop the entry of refugees, but made them cross through unofficial borders. After January 2015, new regulations were imposed for those registered with UNHCR and for those who were not. According to HRW (2016a) the conditions for both are as follow:

- To pay an annual $200 renewal fee per person.

- Present a valid ID.

- Present an entry slip (that were supposed to obtain when entering in Lebanon at the border).

- Submit a housing pledge confirming their place of residence.

- Provide two photographs stamped by a Lebanese official.

- Children under 15 can renew for free (but not if their parents lack of legal status).

For those registered with UNHCR are also required to:

- Present the UNHCR registration certificate.

- Present a notarized pledge not to work.

The ones not registered with UNHCR have to:

- Provide a “pledge of responsibility” signed by a Lebanese national in order to obtain a work permit or be sponsored as a family or individual. (Human Rights Watch, 2016b)

It is really difficult for Syrians to comply with all of these requirements, and around 70% of the refugees in Lebanon are deemed to be without legal status and no legal residency (NRC, 2016). This happens for different reasons, first the economic factor,

$200 for each member of the family could be a heavy economic burden and extra costs

that have to be taken into account, as for example additional cost of photocopying,

public notary services, that can amount to $75 more. (Human Rights Watch, 2016b)

Many refugees struggle to cover the household expenses, as humanitarian aid is

decreasing, the possibility of paying the renewals is very limited. To understand better

this burden, a study done by NRC (2014) has found that for Syrian refugees in Lebanon

the cost of the $200 renewal fee could entail either four months of rent for one room in

an unfinished building, or the material needed for a low standardized shelter in an ITS,

or the amount of money for four months of heating, or the price of a non-caesarean birth

in a hospital, or the 55% of the Minimum Expenditure Basket. As we can see, the fee is astronomical for the economic opportunities of the refugees, that saving money in many cases is not an option, but in order to survive they are entering in endless debts (NRC, 2014). According to findings by UNHCR, UNICEF and WFP nearly 90% of the Syrian refugees in Lebanon are trapped in a vicious cycle of debt. (Sleiman, 2015)

In cases, renewal is denied if they do not have a Lebanese sponsor, even if registered with UNHCR; the necessity of a Lebanese sponsor is leading to abuses as harassment and exploitation. Some sponsors are charging refugees with a sponsorship fee, in an attempt to make money out of their necessity and blackmailing them with sponsorship withdrawal under work or sexual exploitation. Refugees lacking legal status cannot seek for legal redress and cannot report these abuse cases or any others committed towards them, so they remain unprotected. (Human Rights Watch, 2016b)

As explained before, being considered displaced and not a refugee, they need to obtain residency visas, otherwise they would be considered as breaking the law, facing criminal sanctions. Refugees with limited legal status are making use of negative coping mechanisms to limit the risks of being “illegal” in Lebanon. Factors hampering the acquisition of residency visas are normally considered to be lack of freedom of movement, limitations accessing to livelihoods and basic services. Before the new regulations in 2015, refugees were going back to Syria in order to enter Lebanon again obtain a new entry and stay permit, with the risks that it implies. This, since 2015 as mentioned, is no longer possible. The new coping mechanisms were identified as mainly borrowing money to pay the renewal fees, obtaining forged documents and prioritising the renewal for only one member of the family as a potential income-earner.

(NRC and IRC, 2015) Overall, refugees that have limited legal status face limited freedom of movement, and therefore, no access to services and livelihoods, and are risking arrest, detention or deportation, that can happen crossing checkpoints or in raids to check legal documents in ITS. This has great psychological consequences for them.

Curfews upon Syrian refugees as mentioned before, is another limitation for their freedom of movement and therefore hamper their survival means.

At the beginning of the crisis, Syrian refugees could work in Lebanon during their first

six months of stay in Lebanon due the bilateral agreement between Syria and Lebanon

for Economic and Social Cooperation and Coordination. (Almadzadeh et al., 2014) That

was not well organised or implemented and afterwards, as explained, Lebanon decided

to restrain the possibilities of work and stay of Syrian refugees. The pledge not to work that registered Syrians have to sign leaves them in a position where they can only rely on humanitarian assistance to survive. The humanitarian assistance is dwindling at almost half of what it used to be previously and helps only with the 25% of the reugees’

expenses. Cash assistance was found to create dependency and to lower resilience, especially economic resilience, as well it does not allow the refugees to show their potential contribution on skills, workforce and knowledge (Almadzadeh et al., 2014).

Even some refugees that have signed the pledge not to work are interrogated at the General Security office who does not believe that they are upholding the pledge, therefore not renewing their permit and asking them to return with the pledge of responsibility from a Lebanese sponsor, as non-registered Syrians are required. If they cannot find a sponsor, then their residency permit will be made invalid and therefore become illegal even though they have signed the pledge not to work and have complied with the rest of the conditions. The pledge not to work has also caused an increase in debts and negative coping mechanisms, as child labour. (Amnesty International, 2015) At the London Conference to support Syrian and the Region that was held in London the 4 ^th of February, Lebanon as part of the region affected by the Syrian crisis, made a statement of intent, in which among other new measures and intentions to enhance the current situation, the pledge to work as well as the residency fees were mentioned with the intention of waiving them in order to ease the access to the labour market by Syrians specially in the fields of agriculture, construction and other labour-intensive sectors.

(Republic of Lebanon, 2016) However, since February until the date of writing, nothing has changed. When in the interview with Carlos Bohorquez ⁸ , he stressed this point and the contradiction that this pledge posed because Syrian refugees were allowed to do three types of work in Lebanon, agriculture, construction and cleaning services. By signing that pledge they are obliged not to work even in the sectors they could work as refugees, if they want to have legal residency.

Another legal formality that the refugees have to comply with is the birth registration of the new-born Syrian babies in Lebanon. The NRC did a research report (2015) in which 92% of the refugees they interviewed were not able to complete the steps to register their child’s birth. This research explains how many refugees try but finally cannot obtain the certificate for several reasons. The main reasons were identified as lack of

8 Interview N2