COVID-19 and Refugees’ Status of Permanent “Out-of-Placeness”: A Necropolitical Neoliberal Construct 17 Thalia Arawi, Taha Hatab, and Diana Mikati Contents Defining “Refugee”: A Historical Evolution ................................................... 379 Refugees: A Look into the Present ............................................................. 380 Refugees and the Permanent State of Exception ............................................... 381 Necropolitics, Neoliberalism, and the Emerging Concept of Refugee ......................... 382 Covid-19, Refugees, and the Healthcare State of Exception ................................... 384 Universal Human Rights and the Refugee Crisis ............................................... 385 Rights of Refugees in International Laws ...................................................... 386 The State of Palestinian Refugee Camps: A Snapshot of Living, Housing, and Health Conditions ....................................................................................... 389 Poor Infrastructure, Housing, and Sanitation ............................................... 389 The Practical Impossibility of Social Distancing ........................................... 390 Deteriorating Economic Conditions and Rising Unemployment ........................... 391 Insufficient NGO Funding ................................................................... 391 Psychological Distress and Deteriorating Mental Health ................................... 392 High Level of NCDs and Comorbidities .................................................... 393 Thalia Arawi, Taha Hatab and Diana Mikati contributed equally with all other contributors. T. Arawi (*) The Salim El-Hoss Bioethics and Professionalism Program, Department of Internal Medicine, American University of Beirut Medical Center, Beirut, Lebanon Head of Division of Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery, American University of Beirut Medical Center, Beirut, Lebanon e-mail: ta16@aub.edu.lb T. Hatab The Salim El-Hoss Bioethics and Professionalism Program, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon e-mail: tmh13@mail.aub.edu D. Mikati The Salim El Hoss Bioethics and Professionalism Program, American University of Beirut Medical Center, Beirut, Lebanon e-mail: dm29@aub.edu.lb © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 I. Laher (ed.), Handbook of Healthcare in the Arab World, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36811-1_222 377