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What’s it like to be a young Palestinian refugee in Lebanon today?

Spend a week with Sara, Ali and Mohammad

Towering buildings at sunset James Haines-Young/IRIN

Of all the countries Palestinians settled in when they fled or were forced from what is now Israel nearly 70 years ago, Lebanon remains the most hostile to providing basic rights to the decades-old community and its thousands of descendants. As a result, they are systematically marginalised and disenfranchised.

An influx of Syrian refugees and growing tensions between armed groups in some of the country's 12 official camps has made life increasingly difficult for Palestinians in Lebanon. Three-quarters of camp inhabitants live below the poverty line, scraping by on less than $6 a day - and that was before the Syrian crisis.

So what does all this mean for young people growing up in this environment? How does it feel to be a 20-year-old young man from Nahr al-Bared looking for a job? What's it like to be a 19-year-old woman in Ain al-Hilweh who hears gun battles every day? How does a 25-year-old from Bourj al-Barajneh cope with the impossibility of the working restrictions?

To find out, come and spend a week with Mohammad, Sara and Ali. Immerse yourself in their world though WhatsApp chats, videos, photos and handwritten notes. Click here to see for yourself what life is really like for young Palestinian refugees in Lebanon today.

Sara's back
Venetia Rainey/IRIN
 

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