2.11.7. Palestinians

COI summary

[Main COI reference: Targeting, 11]

As of January 2018, 552 000 Palestinians were registered with UNRWA in Syria, of whom an estimated 438 000 remained in Syria.

85 % of Palestinian refugees in Syria are those that fled to the country in or before 1956 and their descendants. They have the same rights as Syrian citizens in terms of residence, freedom of movement, work, trade and access to civil service positions and public services. However, they do not have the right to vote, hold public office, own agricultural land or more than one house per person. Those who fled in 1948 are required to perform compulsory military service in the Palestinian Liberation Army, a Palestinian unit within the Syrian Armed Forces. Palestinians who fled to Syria after 1956 and their descendants were registered with UNRWA in other countries or the occupied Palestinian Territories and are treated as Arab foreigners. They have a 10-year renewable residence permit, and have to apply for a work permit, without having the right to work in the public sector. They have free access to public health and education [Targeting, 11.1].

UNRWA provides services in nine official and three unofficial Palestinian refugee camps in Syria. Operations in Syria include mainly cash and food assistance, education and healthcare services. UNRWA does not administer or police the refugee camps, as this is the responsibility of the GoS. While UNRWA has continued to deliver cash assistance and to provide education and healthcare services in most camps in Syria throughout the conflict, in November 2019 the organisation stated that it ‘continues to face a financial crisis that is affecting its ability to deliver essential services, including humanitarian assistance to Palestine refugees in Syria’. Only 27.3 % of the 2019 financial requirements for Syria were covered, which has resulted in the agency scaling down its operations, especially with regard to providing cash assistance, livelihood, and mental health and psychosocial services [Targeting, 11.2]. UNRWA provides education services to Palestinian refugee students from grade 1 to 9. Most of the 103 UNRWA-managed schools in Syria are located around Rural Damascus and Damascus. Several UNRWA schools were damaged or destroyed during the conflict. There were 50 000 students in those that remained open. It was easier for those residing in camps to access UNRWA education than for those living outside, as most of UNRWA’s services are located nearby or inside camps [Damascus 2021, 3.7.3].

Since the outbreak of hostilities, a number of Palestinian organisations and individuals came to support different parties to the conflict. Palestinian refugee camps have been affected by hostilities and conflict-related displacement, albeit to varying degrees. Around 60 % of Palestinians were displaced at least once since the onset of the conflict. According to UNOCHA, Palestinian refugees in Syria were still vulnerable to displacement, loss of property and the destruction of their neighbourhoods in 2019. More than 180 000 were estimated to have had their homes severely damaged or destroyed, as was the case with Yarmouk, Dar’a and Ein el Tal camps that were hosting 30 % of the Palestinian population [Targeting, 11.2].

Yarmouk camp in Damascus, which housed almost 160 000 UNRWA-registered Palestinian refugees prior to the conflict, was the scene of heavy fighting and siege during the conflict. In 2021, 60 – 70 % of it remained destroyed and even to visit the area, one has to apply for an authorisation. There are no official plans announced regarding the reconstruction of the camp. Even though a new mechanism has been established for those willing to return to the camp which entails filing authorisation forms and the provision of property deeds after payment, it is reported that security branches purposefully banned returns to the camp. It is recorded that 1200 former residents of Al-Yarmouk Camp filed return applications, of whom 500 applicants were granted access, and that 400 families have returned to their homes in the camp [Targeting, 11.2; Recaptured areas, 3.1.8.1; Damascus, 2.3.6].

The security situation was reported as calm in the refugee camps of Rural Damascus governorate, specifically in the camps of Sbeineh, Khan Al-Shieh and Qabr Al-Sit where it had been possible to rebuild clinics, schools, and the sewage and water networks. While returns of Palestinian refugees are reported to some of refugee camps in Rural Damascus, refugees from Yarmouk remained displaced [Security 2021, 2.11.3]. Palestinians residing in towns located to the south of Damascus were required to obtain certificates of good conduct from ‘regime-affiliates in the area’ and security clearances to enter Damascus, but Palestinian IDPs residing in Damascus were banned from traveling to those southern towns despite the fact that they had applied for status settlement [Damascus 2021, 2.3.3]. It was reported that Liwa Al-Quds, a pro-government militia consisting of Palestinians, confiscated homes and shops of (perceived) pro-opposition Palestinians in Neirab, a Palestinian refugee camp in the northern governorate of Aleppo [Returnees from abroad, 4.3].

Various organisations report abductions, arrests and detention of Palestinian refugees, including women, girls, returnees and individuals who had signed reconciliation agreements, by the GoS forces, as well as torture of Palestinians in government prisons, often for unknown reasons [Targeting, 11.3].

As of June 2019, a total of 1 300 Palestinian refugees have returned from Lebanon and Jordan. Palestinian refugees face legal and socio-economic obstacles to returning, as well as entry restrictions, notably in Yarmouk area where former residents are not allowed to rebuild or settle [Targeting, 11.4].

Article 12(1)(a) QD [Article 1D Geneva Convention] analysis

Article 1D of the 1951 Geneva Convention states that,  ‘the Convention shall not apply to persons who are at present receiving from organs or agencies of the United Nations other than the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees protection or assistance. When such protection or assistance has ceased for any reason, without the position of such persons being definitively settled in accordance with the relevant resolutions adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations, these persons shall ipso facto be entitled to the benefits of this Convention’.

The provisions of Article 1D are reflected in Article 12(1)(a) QD, which applies to Palestinian refugees who have actually availed themselves of UNRWA protection or assistance. Where such protection or assistance has ceased for a reason beyond the applicant’s control and independent of their volition, forcing them to leave the UNRWA area of operation or preventing them to re-avail themselves of such protection or assistance, the applicant should be granted refugee status automatically.^[22]

In general, despite the occasional efforts of rebuilding in some of the Palestinian refugee camps, UNRWA protection or assistance is not available to Palestinian refugees in Syria at a level which would guarantee that the ‘living conditions in that area will be commensurate with the mission entrusted to that agency’.^[23] An indication of this is also the large number of Palestinians who remain displaced, without being able to resettle in another of the refugee camps that operate in Syria. Moreover, there can be practical, legal and safety barriers as well as security threats preventing Palestinian refugees from accessing the UNRWA areas of operation in Syria, and thus from re-availing themselves of its protection or assistance.

Based on this, it is found that the protection or assistance from UNRWA in all of Syria can be considered to have ceased in the meaning of Article 12(1)(a) QD. Therefore, Palestinians who had previously availed themselves of the protection or assistance of UNRWA in Syria are to be granted ipso facto refugee status.^[24]

For Palestinians who have not availed themselves of UNRWA protection or assistance in Syria, the assessment should proceed with risk analysis and analysis of nexus to a reason for persecution.

Risk analysis (for those outside the scope of Article 1D of the Geneva Convention)

The acts to which individuals under this profile could be exposed are of such severe nature that they would amount to persecution (e.g. militia violence, illegal detention, abduction, torture, killing, disappearance). When the acts in question are (solely) discriminatory measures, the individual assessment of whether discrimination could amount to persecution should take into account the severity and/or repetitiveness of the acts or whether they occur as an accumulation of various measures.

Not all individuals under this profile would face the level of risk required to establish well-founded fear of persecution. The individual assessment of whether there is a reasonable degree of likelihood for the applicant to face persecution should take into account risk-impacting circumstances, such as: area of habitual residence, identity documents, (perceived) involvement with a party in the conflict, etc.

Nexus to a reason for persecution (for those outside the scope of Article 1D of the Geneva Convention)

Available information indicates that persecution of this profile is highly likely to be for reasons of (imputed) political opinion and/or nationality (statelessness).