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LEBANON / SYRIA PALESTINIAN REFUGEES
STORY: LEBANON / SYRIA PALESTINIAN REFUGEES
TRT: 4.05
SOURCE: UNRWA
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ARABIC / ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: RECENT, AL-BADER CAMP, SAIDA, LEBANON
1. Wide shot, young boys and a woman walking by in the Al-Bader tent camp
2. Wide shot, woman walking by a row of tents
3. Zoom in, man and son coming out of tent
4. Med shot, tents in the Al-Bader camp
5. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Reda Hamad, father, Palestinian refugee:
“There is no food, no vegetables, and no bread. If you get food it is sometimes rotten. There is nothing in this camp.”
6. Med shots, tents
7. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Reda Hamad, father, Palestinian refugee:
“My family took me here. When we arrived here we were twelve persons living in this tent. I still don’t have a tent for me and my closest, not even a mattress.”
8. Med shot, tents
9. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Reda Hamad, father, Palestinian refugee:
“I don’t think I will live much longer under these circumstances.”
10. Close up, picture of Reda Hamad with his son in Syria while he still was well
11. Med shot, Reda Hamad sitting up in his bed with difficulty
RECENT, UNRWA OFFICES, SAIDA, LEBANON
12. Med shot, Palestinians from Syria queuing for registration at the UNRWA office in Saida
13. Close up, queue
14. Med shot, Lady in queue wiping sweat from forehead while waiting to get registered at the UNRWA office in Saida
15. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Fouzeyye Idreese, elderly Palestinian refugee woman waiting to be registered:
“This is the third Nakba (“Catastrophe”) that we witness. The first time was when we had to leave Palestine. I and my family went to Maroun al-Ras in Lebanon. But the people there were picking on the Palestinians. Then we escaped to Syria. There we registered as refugees. This is the third time that disaster has befallen us and leaving us homeless.”
RECENT, BEDDAWI PALESTINE REFUGEE CAMP, TRIPOLI, NORTHERN LEBANON
16. Wide shot, Areal view of Beddawi Palestine refugee camp
17. Med shot, buildings in Beddawi camp
18. Med shot, children hanging around in Alley at the Beddawi camp
19. Med shot, Raida Einbatawe carrying her toddler up the stairs to her shelter in Beddawi camp
20. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Raida Einbatawe, Palestinian refugee mother:
“Planes circled above us and fired at the ground, but we were just watching without being particularly scared. But one day a missile from a plane struck next to our house and I lost my 12-year-old son in that strike. My younger son injured his hand in the strike, the tendons in his hand were cut. A piece of shrapnel hit him here and came out here.”
21.Close up, one of Raida Einbatawe’s younger daughter listening
22. Close up, another of Raida Einbatawe’s younger daughters listening
23. Close up, Raida Einbtawe’s oldest daughter listening
24. Shot, Raida Einbatawe and her children in their shelter
25. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Raida Einbatawe, Palestinian refugee mother:
“My daughter’s son was for months old when we took him to hospital. He died when he was eight months old during the heavy snow. It was that one night when I couldn’t get him to hospital in time when he was sick. When we arrived in the hospital he was already dead. He died from the cold. We had no heaters, no boilers.”
26. Close up, Raida’s oldest daughter crying
27. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Raida Einbatawe, Palestinian refugee mother:
“Here in Lebanon we have also suffered. The people who live closest to me cut my electricity and water. My closest people. One expects all of us to stand by each other, but we don’t. Maybe we deserve what is happening to us.”
28. Various shots, Radia’s oldest and younger daughter
29. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Raida Einbatawe, mother, Palestinian refugee:
“I am so tired! When I realized that my husband cannot come here from Syria I lost hope. I find it hard to deal with the people here and I am not used to begging. I am used to give to others. This is really difficult for me. I always helped others and now I have to beg.”
30. Med shot, one of Raida’s young boys walking
The conflict in Syria is increasingly encroaching on Palestinian refugee camps. Shelling and clashes continue to take place in and nearby several Palestinian camps across the country. Despite the considerable challenges, UNRWA is continuing to deliver emergency relief, health and education services to Palestine refugees across Syria.
At least 44,000 Palestinian refugee homes have been damaged and over 50 percent of all registered Palestine refugees in Syria are now displaced within Syria or in neighboring countries. Approximately 235,000 Palestine refugees are displaced inside Syria.
About 92,000 Palestine refugees from Syria have approached UNRWA in Lebanon for assistance. UNRWA in Lebanon has contributed to the rehabilitation of 11 collective shelters across the country providing housing for Palestinians arriving from Syria.
Earlier in the summer, before the latest big influx of Palestinians from Syria, UNRWA in Lebanon organized rounds of cash distribution for the Palestine refugees from Syria, reaching most of the families who had fled the war in the neighboring country.
UNRWA bears most of the burden of caring for Palestinian refugee families from Syria who have moved into the already overcrowded camps in Lebanon, but budget cuts and other constraints make it impossible for the Agency to meet all the needs of the Palestinians from Syria.
The Palestine refugees in Lebanon faced a number of very specific problems already before the Palestinians from Syria started arriving. The Palestinians in Lebanon lack social and civil rights, they have no access to public social services and they have very limited access public health or educational facilities. They are also barred from many professions.
Palestinian refugees from Syria are an especially vulnerable sub-population of the Syrian conflict. The effects of statelessness multiply the horrors for Palestinians with each new war and subsequent displacement. Living in dark, cramped rooms in the Lebanese camps, these refugees from Syria have no respite from the fresh memories of the Syrian war. Their plight echoes the forced exile from Palestine that they, their parents or grandparents endured decades before.
Seventy-eight families displaced from Syria are forced to live in the makeshift Al-Bader tent camp of flimsy structures made of blankets, cardboard, pieces of wood, nylon and other gathered materials.
Diarrhea is a seasonal disease present in the tented camp and other common hygiene related health issues include scabies and head lice. If any serious contagious diseases were to break out, they would likely spread like wildfire, posing a great risk to the adjacent 70,000 persons currently residing in the overcrowded Ein el-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp in Saida.
Reda Hamad, a young father with chronic rheumatoid arthritis and subsequent bone deformity, is living in one of the structures in the Al-Bader tent camp with his wife, two children, sister and mother.
He is looking to improve the living conditions for his family while he still can, as he believes he may not live to see next winter and he cannot bear the thought of his children still living in the tents during the cold period.
SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Reda Hamad, father, Palestinian refugee:
“There is no food, no vegetables, and no bread. If you get food it is sometimes rotten. There is nothing in this camp.”
SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Reda Hamad, father, Palestinian refugee:
“My family brought me here. When we arrived we were twelve persons living in this tent. I still don’t have a tent for me and my closest, not even a mattress.”
SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Reda Hamad, father, Palestinian refugee:
“I don’t think I will live much longer under these circumstances.”
Despite the recent stricter entry controls being enforced on the border between Syria and Lebanon, Palestinians from Syria continue to arrive in Lebanon to seek assistance from UNRWA.
They wish to sit out the Syrian war in Lebanon, and they hope to return to Syria as soon as it is safe to do so. Many of them have lost their relatives, many have had their homes damaged or destroyed.
The city of Saida 40 km south of Beirut hosts Ein el-Hilweh, Lebanon’s biggest Palestinian refugee camp. Many Palestinians from Syria come here. The newly arrived are queuing every day for registration at the UNRWA office. Among them is Fouzeyye Idreese, a lady who has lived through the tragic history of the Palestinians since she was a young girl during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. She said she is now experiencing her third “Nakba” (= “the Catastrophe”, when Palestinians left, fled or was expelled from their homes as a result of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War).
SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Fouzeyye Idreese, elderly Palestinian refugee woman waiting to be registered:
“This is the third Nakba that we witness. The first time was when we had to leave Palestine. I and my family went to Maroun al-Ras in Lebanon. But the people there were picking on the Palestinians. Then we escaped to Syria. There we registered as refugees. This is the third time that disaster has befallen us and has left us homeless.”
The Beddawi Palestinian refugee camp in Tripoli in northern Lebanon has been overcrowded since 2007 when the neighboring Nahr-el-Bared camp was destroyed in a fierce battle between the non-Palestinian Fatah Al-Islam group and the Lebanese army. Now the camp is hosting an increasing number of Palestinians from Syria.
Raida Einbatawe lives in a room without isolation or window glasses with her four children in Beddawi camp. In Syria she worked as a teacher. Since she arrived in Lebanon she has only occasionally been able to earn some money by cleaning toilets.
She lost her 12-year-old son when a missile landed close to her home in Syria. Her eldest daughter’s baby son fell ill during the cold, snowy winter in Syria and died, despite Raida’s attempt to bring him to hospital. Her husband is still in Syria and she is about to give up hope that he will be able to make it across the border to Lebanon and join her.
SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Raida Einbatawe, Palestinian refugee mother:
“Planes circled above us and fired at the ground, but we were just watching without being particularly scared. But one day a missile from a plane struck next to our house and I lost my 12-year-old son in that strike. My younger son injured his hand in the strike, the tendons in his hand were cut. A piece of shrapnel hit him here and came out here.”
SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Raida Einbatawe, Palestinian refugee mother:
“My daughter’s son was for months old when we took him to hospital. He died when he was eight months old during the heavy snow. It was that one night when I couldn’t get him to hospital in time when he was sick. When we arrived in the hospital he was already dead. He died from the cold. We had no heaters, no boilers.”
SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Raida Einbatawe, Palestinian refugee mother:
“Here in Lebanon we have also suffered. The people who live closest to me cut my electricity and water. My closest people… One expects all of us to stand by each other, but we don’t. Maybe we deserve what is happening to us.”
SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Raida Einbatawe, Palestinian refugee mother:
“I am so tired! When I realized that my husband cannot come here from Syria I lost hope. I find it hard to deal with the people here and I am not used to begging. I am used to give to others. This is really difficult for me. I always helped others and now I have to beg.”
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