Executive Summary
Palestine refugees from Syria (PRS) began trickling into Lebanon shortly after the onset of the Syrian crisis in March 2011. Their numbers, however, only dramatically increased in the second half of 2012, as the crisis intensified. Slightly over half of PRS who currently reside in Lebanon entered the country in 2013, with the largest proportion arriving during the first three months of that year. In August 2013, the first set of restrictions on access into Lebanon were introduced and therefore as of May 2014, PRS entry into Lebanon was curtailed. Their numbers have not increased since then.
During the summer of 2014, UNRWA conducted a Vulnerability Assessment of all PRS families recorded in Lebanon.
Each family was interviewed in their home using a 45-minute-long multi-sectorial family questionnaire that was based on the World Food Program’s (WFP) Vulnerability Assesment of Syrian Refugees (VASyR) questionnaire and adapted for the UNRWA-specific context. The findings presented in this report are based on analysis of data gathered from 12,735 PRS families and 44,227 individuals. The Vulnerability Assessment sought to provide a profile of the PRS population according to the following eight sectors: 1) economic; 2) education; 3) food security; 4) health; 5) non-food items (NFIs); 6) protection; 7) shelter; and 8) water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH). In addition, an overall vulnerability score was calculated.
