I want a safe place: Refugee women from Syria uprooted and unprotected in Lebanon

Syrian refugee women and Palestinian refugee women from Syria face risks of serious human rights violations and abuses in Lebanon, including gender-based violence and exploitation. Those who are heads of their households are at particular risk.
 
Over four million people have fled Syria since the start of the crisis in 2011 with more than 1 million fleeing to Lebanon. This means that about 25% of the country’s population are refugees from Syria and Lebanon has more refugees per capita than any other country in the world. Of the 1.06 million Syrian refugees in Lebanon at the end of 2015, 53% are children. Women over 18 years of age make up almost 26% of the refugee population and 21% aremen over 18. Lebanon also hosts over 44,000 Palestinian refugees from Syria. One fifth of Syrian refugee households in Lebanon are headed by women. For Palestinian refugees from Syria, women head almost one third of households. Some refugee women who are heads of their household in Lebanon are widows, some are divorced and some have
husbands who have either stayed in Syria or have sought asylum in other countries. Others have husbands who are missing, forcibly disappeared or detained in Syria.
 
Amnesty International carried out research in Lebanon from 15 to 26 June 2015 and from 30 September to 16 October 2015. The organization met with 77 refugee women (65 Syrian women and 12 Palestinian refugee women from Syria). The organization also held meetings with UN agencies, lawyers and international and national NGOs and wrote to the government requesting its response to some of the findings. 

Publisher: 
Amnesty International
Publishing Date: 
Friday, 1 January 2016
Resource Type: 
Studies and Reports
Theme: 
Refugees, Gender, Human Rights & Protection