The Shatila refugee camp was set up by the Red Cross to house the thousands of Palestinian refugees who arrived there in 1948. The population is now over 22,000 with the arrival of Palestinians fleeing the Syrian Civil War. They are crammed into an area of one square kilometre. The Lebanese government refuses to grant any citizen rights to the Palestinians. The government doesn?t provide any basic services so the community has had to organise these for themselves. Electrical cables and water pipes dangle above the narrow alleyways as people improvise to get basic provision.
The Shatila refugee camp was set up by the Red Cross to house the thousands of Palestinian refugees who arrived there in 1948. The current population is estimated to be over 22,000 as it’s population has increased with the arrival of Palestinians fleeing the Syrian Civil War. These people are crammed into an area of one square kilometre making it a highly densely populated place to live. The Lebanese government refuses to grant any citizen rights to the Palestinians, some of who have spent their entire lives in Lebanon. The government doesn’t provide any basic services like electricity or water to the camp so the community has had to organise these for themselves. A mass of electrical cables and water pipes dangles above the narrow alleyways as people improvise to get basic provision.
I travelled to the camp to record how the people live under these conditions. I wanted to show how camps such as this develop, the architecture, the chaotic infrastructure and the pressure this puts on the people who must live amongst it.