The Camps
In the sections below, we take a look at how life is like in Palestinian refugee camps. Over 1.5 million Palestinians – one third of the registered Palestine refugees – live in 58 recognized refugee camps in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
Unfortunately, lack of appropriate funding means that most of these camps are little more than shanty towns, with rampant squalor.
More than 31,478 registered refugees4 schools, including 1 secondary school1 health centreMajority aged between 13-25 Camp lies on the coast, 5km of Tyre and is divided into “old” and “new” sections. Older part built by French government in 1936 to house Armenian refugees who fled Lebanon. The “new camp” was…
More than 22,789 registered refugees4 schools1 health centreMajority aged between 13-40 Located 3km east of Tyre. It was established to provide shelter for refugees from Hawla and Tiberias, northern Palestine, in 1948. Camp also houses displaced Palestinians from other parts of Lebanon. UNRWA began providing services in 1955. Camp suffered…
More than 11,254 registered refugees4 schools1 health centreMajority aged between 13-25 Located 1.5km south of Tyre. The French government originally built the camp in 1939 for Armenian refugees. Palestinians from the Acre in the Galilee came to the camp in the 1950s and the Armenians moved to the Anja area.…
More than 5,250 registered refugees2 schools1 part-time health centreMajority aged between 13-25 Located 4km east of Sidon, established in 1984. Refugees generally came from Saffourieh, Tiereh, Haifa and Miron in Palestine. Suffered considerable damage during years of civil conflict, particularly in July 1991 when 15% of its shelters were destroyed,…
Around 662 registered refugees1 school1 health centreMajority aged between 41-60 Located southwest of Beirut, it is the smallest camp in Lebanon. Founded in 1952 by the Mar Elias Greek Orthodox convent to house refugees from Galilee. Most of the men work as casual labourers or for small businesses, such as…