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The Burj al Barajneh refugee camp in Beirut is home to 18,000 Palestinians and 40,000 Syrians . It was originally established, in 1948, for 500 families. It’s estimated that there are some 250,000 Palestinian refugees across Lebanon , though this isn’t an exact figure.

Many Palestinians, including many who came from Syria since the war began in 2011 are neither registered with The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNWRA) or the Lebanese state. Others have left the country because Palestinians in Lebanon cannot work in key professions, cannot own property and can only own a business in partnership with Lebanese citizens. Every month young, college-educated Palestinians use “these illegal boats” and travel to Europe, says Nazih Yaacoub, chief of the Palestinian Programme in Unicef Lebanon.



He is, himself, a Palestinian refugee. “They will not find job in Lebanon.” Young people who can’t leave and can’t work, he says, frequently join drug gangs or extremist groups.

Burj al Barajneh camp is administered by the Palestinian Authority . Lebanese authorities do not enter. Consequently, the Palestinian population has been joined by Syrian refugees fearful of deportation and poor Lebanese people who can’t afford to live elsewhere due to country’s financial crisis.

Security here is run by the different paramilitary factions working together. One of the security men escorting us has a handgun tucked into his waistband. We start our visit o.

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