Global Overview 2014: people internally displaced by conflict and violence - Lebanon

Number of IDPsAt least 20,000
Percentage of total populationAt least 0.4%
Start of displacement situation2006
Peak number of IDPs (year)800,000 (2006)
New displacement in 20130
Causes of displacement✓ Armed conflict
x Generalised violence
x Human rights violations
Human development index72

At least 20,000 people were internally displaced in Lebanon as of the end of 2013. All of them were Palestinian refugees who fled from the Nahr el-Bared camp north of Tripoli in 2007, when it was destroyed during fighting between the Lebanese army and the militant group Fatah al-Islam. The destruction of the camp had led to the displacement of 27,000 people.

There were no reports of people being internally displaced as a result of rising insecurity in Lebanon linked to the ongoing and increasingly sectarian armed conflict in neighbouring Syria.

The Palestinians displaced from Nahr el-Bared continue to live in overcrowded conditions in the nearby Baddawi refugee camp and the surrounding areas. They face a number of protection and economic challenges, including limited access to livelihood opportunities and restrictions on their freedom of movement.

UNRWA aims to rebuild Nahr el-Bared and facilitate return to the camp in line with wishes expressed by those who displaced from it. By July 2013, more than 5,500 former residents were reported to have returned, but the funding shortages UNRWA faces mean that reconstruction has not advanced enough for all to return.

Reconstruction of Beirut's Haret-Hreik neighbourhood was completed in 2012, and all of the remaining IDPs from the 2006 conflict with Israel have returned during 2013.

Some of those displaced during Lebanon's 1975 to 1990 civil war have faced more difficultly in terms of durable solutions. Progress towards them has been hindered by uneven urban development and outstanding compensation and reparation claims in the Shouf mountains.

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