State of Lebanon’s Shura Council decided this month that they have finally removed all the restrictions they launched in December. Now they are allowing Palestinian refugees to work in regulated trade-union professions after ordered complaints would infringe on Lebanese professionals’ rights and claims that the order was trying to pave the way for naturalizing Palestinian refugees.
The restrictions were removed after the council accepted an appeal by the ‘Maronite League’, the head of the league, ‘Neamatallah Abi Nasr’, announced on February 17 Thursday, as per reports.
These regulations launched by the Labor Ministry in December which stated that Palestinians who were born and bought up in Lebanon and officially recorded in the reports of the Lebanese Interior Ministry would be allowed to work in professions that are in general limited to Lebanese citizens only, for instance: Law, engineering and medicine.
The appeal of restrictions pointed by the Maronite League claimed that the labour minister had violated his authority when he issued a decision allowing Palestinians to access lastly closed professionals.
As per the appeal, the decision violated the country’s constitution, including that the league was blocking adapted in order to “change the modern and historic face of Lebanon and attempting to impose a new demographic status quo, stated by L’Orient Le’Jour.
The sudden movement of the Hamas in Lebanon blamed the decision to take back their orders on Saturday, also mentioning that it is creating fundamental questions related to its background and their timings, and somehow they are also harming the relations of Lebanese-Palestinian.
The opposition party of the Maronite League’s appeal claimed that the labour’s minister did not change anything in law by opening up barred professions and had simply taken back previous orders issued by the former labour ministers.
The National Federation of Employees’ and Workers’ Unions in Lebanon (FENASOL) declared on February 13 Saturday that it would not relent with the orders taken back and also allow Palestinian refugees to work in the affected professions.
As per the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), it is estimated that 180,000 Palestinian refugees are living in Lebanon, and refugees are suffering in Lebanon due to widespread poverty and an extreme lack of rights. That is why are they are suffering to obtain citizenship.
Meanwhile, Palestinian refugees have to invest in the National Social Security Fund. They can essentially not access the advantages of the fund offered to Lebanese citizens.