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IOM Vision
IOM aims to support and protect the most vulnerable individuals across Lebanon, including migrants, refugees, and local community members, against mounting humanitarian needs and socioeconomic hardship caused by multidimensional crises. To address the mobility dynamics of the multi-faceted crisis across the humanitarian-development-peace nexus, IOM will provide lifesaving support, build economic and community resilience against the loss of job opportunities and growing tensions, and seek to prevent and discourage unsafe and irregular migration.
Context analysis
The humanitarian situation in Lebanon continues to deteriorate, triggering increased poverty and increasing needs. The country's economic collapse ranks among the worst globally, causing severe inflation and unemployment, making living costs unaffordable for thousands, and creating acute humanitarian needs. Over half of the Lebanese population is living below the poverty line (World Bank, 2022). Lebanon has among the world's highest numbers of refugees per capita with an estimated 90 per cent of Syrian households in 2023 living in extreme poverty.
Without a functioning government, Lebanon's presidential vacuum has resulted in local clashes and further destabilization of the country's delicate political balance. State bankruptcy has weakened public services, including electricity, and by extension, life-saving health care. The Russo-Ukraine war has disrupted grain supplies, causing food insecurity. With the cost of bread rising, 45 per cent of Lebanese households are struggling to afford food (WFP, 2023). In addition, since 8 October 2023, armed confrontations have been going on daily between Hezbollah, Palestinian factions, and the Israel Defense Forces at the Israeli-Lebanese border (near the Blue Line). As a consequence of the fighting, 25,584 Internally displaced persons (IDPs) have been displaced from 85 cadastres in Lebanon, as of 1 November 2023 (Round 9 DTM report).
Fuel shortages have left critical water pumps idle, increasing reliance on suspect water sources in vulnerable communities such as informal tented settlements. The cholera outbreak in October 2022 highlighted the consequences of faltering infrastructure, putting an already strained healthcare system with limited capacity under more pressure. Essential medicines to treat chronic diseases and antibiotics are increasingly difficult to obtain, impeding access to adequate health care for Lebanese, Palestinian and migrant households (REACH, 2022).
These challenges reflect a number of development deficits such as weak infrastructure, lack of preparedness and high exposure to catastrophic hazard events, which are aggravated by the combination of poor environmental governance and climate change. Despite middle-income status, and a ranking of 65 out of 191 countries globally on the 2024 INFORM risk index, this same index ranks Lebanon as 14 out of 191 in terms of vulnerability.
The current economic and state decay is among the main drivers of mobility trends; with increased irregular boat departures attempting to reach Europe. Nearly triple last year's figures, an estimated 4,211 Lebanese, Syrian and Palestinians attempted the dangerous journey between January and October 2022, with two sinkings resulting in over 140 migrants drowned or missing in 2022. As of 31 October 2023, IOM has observed 68 irregular attempts in 2023, including departures and land interception. Additionally, in October 2023, the escalation of hostilities on the Lebanon-Israel border has, as of 26 October, displaced 28,000 internally from southern Lebanon (IOM DTM).
Over 160,000 migrants reside in Lebanon from 80 different nationalities (an 18% increase since 2022) (IOM, 2023). Migrants are severely affected by high rates of unemployment, poor access to essential services and food, and shelter insecurity (OCHA, 2022) and are unable to return to their country of origin or support families back home. The sponsorship (kafala) system forces many to choose between accepting exploitative working conditions, and wage theft, or falling into irregular status, limiting their access to assistance and increasing the risk of falling victim to human trafficking, sexual exploitation, exploitative working conditions, detention, and deportation. Protection concerns also have further increased. Sixty per cent of Lebanon's migrants require humanitarian and protection assistance (a 31% increase since 2022) (OCHA 2022) and a quarter of them are potentially seeking assistance to return home. However, only nine per cent received humanitarian assistance in the last year and funding for specialized assistance is urgently required to ensure they are not left behind (REACH & IOM, 2022).