Since the retirement of the head of Political Affairs and Refugees at the Interior Ministry, the directorate has stopped all issuing of personal status documents for Palestinian refugees, making it impossible for them to enrol in university or request economic assistance.

Although the former director general, Brig. Nicolas Habr, would assign a ministry official to sign documents in his name during his tenure, Habr’s retirement has created a “vacuum.”

Requests from Palestinian refugees for identification papers and civil registry records are piling up on the table of Fadi Abu al-Dardaa, who has been named mukhtar in the Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp in Sidon.

One request belongs to a young woman who needs a civil registry record in order to enrolin a university, while another was sent by a man requesting a document that he needs to submit to an economic foundation.

Ahmad, whose wife carries a Palestinian passport, needs the Lebanese state to recognize her marriage but he’s out of luck.

“These requests are dormant, awaiting the assignment of a new director general or the authorization of someone to sign the identification papers we need,” Abu al-Dardaa said.

Abu al-Dardaa says the roots of the problem can be traced to a decree that transferred responsibility for issuing of documents from the Directorate General of Refugee Affairs to the Directorate General of Political Affairs and Refugees.

According to Abu al-Dardaa, 400 to 500 applications for personal status documents are submitted each week by refugees in Ain al-Hilweh.

Mukhtars said the authorities had asked them to temporarily suspend the collection of requests that need to be finalized in the Directorate General of Political Affairs and Refugees.

Palestinian Mona Rifai said she had come from Saudi Arabia to renew her Lebanese travel document, but the post office told her that the authorities had stopped issuing the civil registry records she needs to renew her document. She worried that the crisis would drag on and she would be stuck in the country for a long period of time.

Records of marriage, divorce and deaths of Palestinians are issued by the Directorate General of Refugee Affairs, but for these events to be officially recognized, the applicants needs personal papers issued by the Directorate General of Political Affairs and Refugees.

According to Marwa Othman, many Palestinian students like here are worried that the current “vacuum” will lead to the loss of their academic year.

Othman participated with her colleagues in a sit-in organized by the Democratic Front for the Liberation Palestine to demand a solution.

“I want to apply to the Lebanese University, and I need personal documents in order to complete the application. Where do I get these documents from?” she asked.