Heading home: Syrian refugees in Lebanon going back to Syria

By ABBY SEWELL
Associated Press

ARSAL, Lebanon (AP) — Hundreds of Syrian refugees have boarded a convoy of trucks in the Lebanese mountain town of Arsal to return to their war-torn country. Wednesday’s journey is the latest attempt by the government in Beirut to organize a mass refugee return from tiny, crisis-ridden Lebanon. More than a million Syrian refugees — and many claim the number is far higher — live in Lebanon, where politicians frequently blame the refugees for the country’s economic woes. Political leaders have periodically announced plans to send them back to Syria en masse, but both international organizations and the refugees themselves have remained circumspect about conditions for their return.