Aliens Employment in UK Law

UNRWA describes the situation of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon as involving them facing specific problems. They do not have social and civil rights and have a very limited access to the government's public health or educational facilities, and no access to public or social services. The majority rely entirely on UNRWA as the sole provider of education, health and relief and social services.

We return to this point in some detail below, but our view is that although there is evidence as we have described briefly above - for example from the UNRWA at page 91 of Mr Southey's bundle - concerning the serious problems in the camps, to regard the circumstances in the camps as life-threatening is excessive and objectively unfounded, having regard to the information in the international reports provided to us.

It is also said in this regard that other foreigners may own a limited size plot of land but only after obtaining the approval of five different district officers, and that the law applies to all foreigners but it is applied in a manner disadvantageous to the 25,000 Kurds in the country.

If Mr Southey is relying on what he considers to be the genuine justification rather than the purported justification, then we find ourselves in agreement with Ms Laing that, bearing in mind the delicate political balance in Lebanon, the Lebanese authorities are entitled to take account of the potential impact upon their society of a tenth of the population suddenly being granted citizenship and thereby enfranchised.

In April 2007 he visited Beirut when he met a group of Egyptian agricultural, construction and building maintenance workers at the airport, and during the course of a conversation with them was informed that they do receive health, medical and social benefits as part of a Memorandum of Understanding between Egypt and Lebanon.

In assessing whether the public interest would be harmed in that way, it is necessary a) to consider the underlying purpose of the prohibition which has been transgressed and whether that purpose will be enhanced by denial of the claim, b) to consider any other relevant public policy on which the denial of the claim may have an impact and c) to consider whether denial of the claim would be a proportionate response to the illegality, bearing in mind that punishment is a matter for the criminal courts.

Without statutory intervention, it might be difficult to decide whether a person who has been granted temporary admission pending determination of her application for asylum is lawfully present in the territory. It is not self-evident that she is not lawfully present in these circumstances. Like Lord Hope, I agree with Lord Bridge's reasoning and would hold, for the reasons given by Stanley Burnton LJ, that the criticism of it in Szoma was not well-founded.