Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon Three Times More Likely to Die with COVID-19

Motorbike riders wear face masks to protect against COVID-19 in south Beirut's Shatila Palestinian refugee camp on March 30, 2020. (Reuters)
Motorbike riders wear face masks to protect against COVID-19 in south Beirut's Shatila Palestinian refugee camp on March 30, 2020. (Reuters)
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Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon Three Times More Likely to Die with COVID-19

Motorbike riders wear face masks to protect against COVID-19 in south Beirut's Shatila Palestinian refugee camp on March 30, 2020. (Reuters)
Motorbike riders wear face masks to protect against COVID-19 in south Beirut's Shatila Palestinian refugee camp on March 30, 2020. (Reuters)

Palestinian refugees in Lebanon are three times more likely to die with COVID-19 than the population as a whole, according to UN figures that highlight the pandemic’s outsized impact on the community.

An estimated 207,000 Palestinian refugees live in Lebanon after being driven from their homes or fleeing the conflict surrounding Israel’s 1948 creation, the vast majority in cramped camps where social distancing is impossible.

In the year since Lebanon registered its first case, about 5,800 have been infected with the coronavirus and about 200 of them have died, said a spokeswoman for the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.

That is three times the COVID-19 mortality rate for the country as a whole of just over 1%.

Most Palestinians who died after contracting the disease in Lebanon had health conditions such as cardiac or pulmonary issues, which are aggravated by poverty and conditions in the camps, said UNWRA spokeswoman Hoda Samra.

Cramped living conditions and the need to go out to work meant Palestinian refugees were more likely to be exposed to the virus, she added.

“Vulnerable communities tend to have poorer baseline health conditions, hence more co-morbidities and chronic health conditions,” said Joelle Abi Rached, an associate researcher at Sciences Po University in Paris.

Lebanese authorities bar Palestinians from obtaining Lebanese nationality or working in many skilled professions, so the refugees largely make a living doing low-paid labor in construction and crafts, or as street vendors.

“The focus here is on the economic elements — people go out because they can’t afford to go stay home,” Samra told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

She said the total number of infections among Palestinians was likely higher given that only those suspected to have been exposed to confirmed COVID-19 cases were tested.

Lebanon, which kicked off its inoculation program on Sunday, has said it will vaccinate Palestinian and Syrian refugees along with the rest of the population.

The total number of doses Lebanon has ordered so far would cover about half its population of more than six million, including at least a million Syrian refugees, who have also been hard hit by the pandemic.

Nine out of 10 were living in extreme poverty last year, according to the United Nations.

Lebanon has been hammered over the past year by an acute financial crisis and a massive explosion in the capital, as well as facing one of the region’s highest coronavirus infection rates.

But there are concerns about vaccine take-up. By Tuesday, only about 540,00 people had registered for vaccination, of whom about 6,200 were Palestinians and 5,300 were Syrians, according to government data.

“There is a lack of encouragement to take the vaccine that I think applies to many communities in Lebanon,” Samra said.



Kurdish Fighters Leave Northern City in Syria as Part of Deal with Central Government

A first contingent of Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters leave Aleppo, headed for SDF-controlled northeastern Syria, in Aleppo, Syria, 04 April 2025. (EPA)
A first contingent of Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters leave Aleppo, headed for SDF-controlled northeastern Syria, in Aleppo, Syria, 04 April 2025. (EPA)
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Kurdish Fighters Leave Northern City in Syria as Part of Deal with Central Government

A first contingent of Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters leave Aleppo, headed for SDF-controlled northeastern Syria, in Aleppo, Syria, 04 April 2025. (EPA)
A first contingent of Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters leave Aleppo, headed for SDF-controlled northeastern Syria, in Aleppo, Syria, 04 April 2025. (EPA)

Scores of US-backed Kurdish fighters left two neighborhoods in Syria’s northern city of Aleppo Friday as part of a deal with the central government in Damascus, which is expanding its authority in the country.

The fighters left the predominantly Kurdish northern neighborhoods of Sheikh Maksoud and Achrafieh, which had been under the control of Kurdish fighters in Aleppo over the past decade.

The deal is a boost to an agreement reached last month between Syria’s interim government and the Kurdish-led authority that controls the country’s northeast. The deal could eventually lead to the merger of the main US-backed force in Syria into the Syrian army.

The withdrawal of fighters from the US-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) came a day after dozens of prisoners from both sides were freed in Aleppo, Syria’s largest city.

Syria’s state news agency, SANA, reported that government forces were deployed along the road that SDF fighters will use to move between Aleppo and areas east of the Euphrates River, where the Kurdish-led force controls nearly a quarter of Syria.

Sheikh Maksoud and Achrafieh had been under SDF control since 2015 and remained so even when forces of ousted President Bashar al-Assad captured Aleppo in late 2016. The two neighborhoods remained under SDF control when forces loyal to current interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa captured the city in November, and days later captured the capital, Damascus, removing Assad from power.

After being marginalized for decades under the rule of the Assad family rule, the deal signed last month promises Syria’s Kurds “constitutional rights,” including using and teaching their language, which were banned for decades.

Hundreds of thousands of Kurds, who were displaced during Syria’s nearly 14-year civil war, will return to their homes. Thousands of Kurds living in Syria who have been deprived of nationality for decades under Assad will be given the right of citizenship, according to the agreement.

Kurds made up 10% of the country’s prewar population of 23 million. Kurdish leaders say they don’t want full autonomy with their own government and parliament. They want decentralization and room to run their day-to day-affairs.