Some Syrian refugees risk returning to opposition-held areas as hostility in host Lebanon grows

By OMAR ALBAM and ABBY SEWELL
Associated Press

IDLIB, Syria (AP) — For more than a decade, a steady flow of Syrians have crossed the border from their war-torn country into Lebanon. But anti-refugee sentiment is rising there, and over the past two months, hundreds of Syrian refugees have gone the other way. Until this year, the numbers returning from Lebanon were so low that one local government run by an insurgent group had not formally tracked them. Now it recorded 1,041 people arriving from Lebanon in May alone. Tiny, crisis-wracked Lebanon has been the host of the highest per capita population of refugees in the world, with hundreds of thousands of Syrians.