Seven years after the first Syrian refugees started arriving in Lebanon, this population of over a million men, women and children has become more vulnerable than ever. Despite the exceptionally high levels of financial support that Lebanon has received in the past years, over half of Syrian refugees are living in extreme poverty and more than three quarters live below the poverty line. As a result of a series of state policies implemented since 2015, in the eighth year of displacement as many as 76% of Syrian refugees aged 15 and above did not have legal residency and were struggling to access jobs and make ends meet.[1]

In 2017 Lebanon received around USD 2.8 billion in grants and loans to fund the refugee response and to strengthen the state and local communities hosting the displaced population. In 2018 the international community made further commitments amounting to over USD 12 billion (over USD 1 billion in humanitarian funding for 2018, and over USD 11 billion in development-focused grants and loans for the next 10 years).

And yet the quality of asylum for Syrian refugees in Lebanon is dismal, in terms of access to rights, services and livelihoods as well as in terms of simple human dignity. The structural poverty, exploitation, abuse and discrimination refugees face raise questions about donors’ ability to deliver “protection in the region”.

This policy agenda, promoted by the EU and its member states since the Mediterranean crisis of 2015, is based on the premise of Syrian refugees staying in regional host countries. In return, the EU has committed to supporting these countries to shelter and protect the displaced population until safe and voluntary returns or resettlement is possible. The agenda initially found expression in the EU-Turkey Agreement in 2016, and was developed further through the EU Compacts signed with Jordan and Lebanon later that year.

“Protection in the region” has been challenged on the basis of its perceived inconsistencies with international refugee law, and these debates are nowhere near an end.[2] While remaining cognisant of these discussions, and sharing some normative concerns raised in them, we recognise that protection in the region could have strong merits for refugees. Living in geographical proximity to Syria and in societies with shared languages and broadly similar cultural norms could mitigate the fallout of displacement for many refugees.

However, the merits of protection in the region depend heavily on the donor community’s capacity to deliver on the key aspect of this agenda: actual legal and social protection of the displaced population. By seeking to understand the political and economic factors affecting Lebanon’s refugee response, our research explores the extent to which the aims of this agenda have been achieved and the challenges that it continues to face.