UNRWA Lebanon Field Office
Beirut, June 2010
1. BACKGROUND
By the end of 2009 more than 26,000 Palestine refugees from Nahr el-Bared Camp (NBC) and its Adjacent Areas in North Lebanon remain displaced two and a half years after the end of the conflict in 2007 that left their camp in ruins. Since then, UNRWA, together with sister UN agencies, NGOs, the ICRC, Red Cross and Red Crescent societies, with support from the international community and the Government of Lebanon (GoL), has been supporting refugee families to help them cope with their displacement and loss of homes and livelihoods.
Many of the displaced families continue to live in makeshift rented accommodation in garages, shops or damaged apartments in the NBC Adjacent Areas (around the outside of the destroyed camp) or in and around Beddawi camp in Tripoli. Others have been provided with accommodation in temporary shelters built by UNRWA or in buildings the Agency has repaired for use as collective centres. A small number of families remain scattered throughout Lebanon. During 2008-2009, UNRWA provided rental subsidies to all those families in rented accommodation. Without this subsidy many families would simply not have been able to economically survive and this support remains the largest financial commitment for the Agency at $545,000 every month.
The refugee community has so far been unable to recover from their economic losses or to recreate the thriving commercial and trading centre that NBC once was. A number of initiatives that were established with funding from the Emergency Appeal (2007-2008) continue to operate, including the North Vocational Training Centre (NTC), an apprenticeships programme and the Emergency Employment Services Centre (EESC), to provide knowledge, skills and support to improve refugee employment opportunities. UNRWA has provided small grants to micro-enterprises and small businesses in an attempt to help regenerate the local economy. Although a portion of the businesses that were destroyed have been restarted, realistically the local market cannot grow and become sustainable while local purchasing power remains low with most breadwinners still under-employed or unemployed. The continuing cordoning off of the Adjacent Areas by the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) continues to be a major disincentive to outsiders, particularly Lebanese from the North, who used to rely on NBC's market and service industry thereby substantially contributing to the local economy. Under these conditions there will be a very slow economic recovery and the majority of displaced families will continue to remain heavily dependent on UNRWA and international support for the foreseeable future.
UNRWA, as the lead Agency providing education, health and relief and social services to the Palestine refugees, is committed to providing the NBC refugees with the support necessary for their well-being during their protracted displacement while the camp is being reconstructed. Temporary schools, health clinics, relief offices and other installations were established in NBC Adjacent Areas and in Beddawi camp (where approximately 10,000 displaced refugees still live) through funding from the previous Emergency Appeal and the RERA.
Given that most refugees in the north were affected by the NBC conflict and in order to rationalise resources and operations, UNRWA amalgamated the NBC Project Management Unit (PMU) with its Area Office and the regular programmes in North Lebanon (education, health and relief and social services) in early 2009. The new Northern Management Unit (NMU), based in Tripoli, has since taken over responsibility for all of UNRWA's regular programmes in North Lebanon and continues to manage the NBC relief, recovery and reconstruction operations.
Recognising that feelings of insecurity, lack of trust and scepticism that the camp will ever be rebuilt are common in the community, UNRWA has striven to develop better communication channels and dialogue with the refugees.