A representative of the Embassy of Lebanon in Ottawa provided the following information during a telephone interview conducted on 10 January 2005:

Since children born in the United Arab Emirates of a Jordanian father and a stateless Palestinian mother have no formal connection to Lebanon, in order to reside in Lebanon they must apply for a "residence permit," which must be renewed every 6 to 12 months, depending on their particular situation. According to the representative, applying for residency does not guarantee acceptance by the Lebanese authorities.

For more information on the conditions for obtaining a "stay permit" (which the representative indicated was another word for residence permit), please see LBN38811.E of 11 April 2002. According to the embassy representative, the information in LBN38811.E on conditions for obtaining a stay permit, which was extracted from the Website of the General Security Branch (Direction générale de la Sûreté générale), is still valid as of 10 January 2005.

According to the embassy representative, the child of a Jordanian man is considered Jordanian. There have been many cases of people residing in Lebanon with no legal status because they have never notified the Lebanese authorities of their presence. Once discovered, such persons would normally be forced to leave Lebanon.

Residents of Lebanon may apply for citizenship, but, according to the embassy representative, the vast majority of citizenship applications is refused, especially for Arabs and even more so in the case of Palestinians (even if they have lived in Lebanon for 30 years). For instance, the representative stated that in 2003, Lebanon refused 100 per cent of the 4,000 citizenship applications it received.

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim for refugee protection.

Embassy of Lebanon in Ottawa. 10 January 2005. Telephone interview with a representative.