Easily evicted

Lebanon’s already crumbling infrastructure has been further exasperated by the inflow of refugees into the country — UNHCR most recently tallied 1.1 million registered Syrians — and the lack of adequate, affordable housing is making refugees’ lives in Lebanon even more difficult.  Most recently, the Lebanese government has restricted the entrance of new refugees into the country. “Lebanon is no longer officially receiving any Syrian refugees,” Minister of Social Affairs Rashid Derbas said in comments published in Al-Akhbar newspaper in mid October. But for refugees in Lebanon the list of challenges for daily survival grows. “Despite the growing numbers,” Human Rights Watch reported in early October, “the national government has not adopted a national policy for housing.” Lebanon is not a signatory to the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 protocol which would — among other things — provide the right to housing. Neither has