Upon the start of the displacement of Palestinians into Lebanon in 1948, the Lebanese government issued Decree no. 11657, stipulating the establishment of regional committees operating under a central committee in each Mohafaza to attend to the affairs of the newcomers from Palestine to Lebanon, particularly to count their numbers, provide them shelter, ensure their livelihoods and take care of their health conditions.  Later in 1958, the committees were abolished and the Ministry of the Interior was mandated to look after the affairs of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. Major General Noureddine Rifai who established the first military government in 1976 was appointed to undertake the job.

 

Against the exacerbating burdens of the Palestinian presence and the proliferation of refugee camps, and in order to regulate and control their presence, the Lebanese government decided, after more than ten years since the controversy had began, to establish a directorate named Directorate for Palestinian Refugee Affairs under the Ministry of the Interior. The directorate, which came about pursuant to Legislative Decree no. 42 dated March 31, 1954, was assigned the following main functions:

    - Considering the applications of displaced Palestinian families;

    - Locating refugee camps and renting or acquiring the plots of land necessary for the setting up of the said camps;

    - Contacting Relief International to provide Palestinian refugees with shelter and education and to ensure their livelihood and care for their health and social affairs;

    - Granting Palestinians licenses to change their domicile from one camp to another;

    - Considering marriage applications filed by Palestinian refugees;

    - Approving the release of frozen funds;

    - Considering the applications requesting the correction of statistical errors contained in their databases and cards;

    - Monitoring the conditions of refugees and their social and health affairs;

    - Monitoring the political movements of refugees (parties, associations and organizations);

    - Monitoring the offences and acts infringing on security;

    - Monitoring the suspicious members among refugees;

    - Registering personal status documents;

    - Receiving and considering passport applications before referring them to the General Security.

 

In 1959, the staff established for the Directorate for Palestinian Refugee Affairs consisted of 26 employees as follows: 

    - Head of Directorate: 1

    - Monitors: 13

    - Assistant monitors: 7

    - Janitor: 1

    - Servant: 1

    - Gendarmerie delegates: 3

 

In 2000, with the approval of Law no. 247 and Decree no. 4083, which were concerned with the organization of the Ministry of the Interior, the directorate was cancelled and replaced with the Directorate for Political Affairs and Refugees, which was assigned the functions pertaining to elections. The General Directorate was converted into a Directorate, which implied that the state did not deal with the refugee issue as an independent subject with serious impacts and repercussions but made it an ordinary theme, which might pave way for the naturalization of refugees in the future.

 

The newly-introduced Directorate included 60 posts distributed  as illustrated in Table 1.