The Israeli military’s intensified airstrikes in Lebanon since late September have compelled hundreds of thousands of Syrians – most of whom sought shelter in Lebanon from Syria’s war – to flee back to Syria. But many people face serious risks if they return, leaving Syrian families trying to escape violence in Lebanon with no safe place to go. 

One woman described fleeing to Syria with her husband, a former Syrian soldier, and four children. In late September, the family received an evacuation warning when Israeli shelling intensified, and they fled with nothing. On October 7, they crossed into Syria at a border crossing in Homs, where she said Syrian military intelligence immediately arrested her husband.

Now living in Syria, she has no idea of her husband’s whereabouts and struggles to provide for her children. “I wish we stayed under the rockets rather than go through this,” she said, saying her only hope is for her husband’s release. 

Over one million Syrian refugees live in Lebanon. But even as Lebanon hosts a large number of Syrian refugees, many of them experienced hardships, including rising xenophobia, in their host country long before Israel’s current offensive. The Lebanese government has imposed coercive measures designed to force refugees to consider returning to Syria, and authorities there have even detained and 

In Syria, Human Rights Watch has long documented how returned refugees, particularly men, risk repression and persecution by the Syrian government, including enforced disappearance, torture, and death in detention. Returnees also face devastating economic and humanitarian conditions in Syria.

Nevertheless, since Israeli military bombardments intensified in September, about 440,000 people have reportedly fled Lebanon to Syria through official border crossings. A significant number of arrivals in Syria are women and children. 

Human Rights Watch recently interviewed Syrians in Lebanon and others who fled to Syria, including relatives of five men arrested by Syrian authorities after they returned from Lebanon in October. Relatives said these arrests were carried out by Syrian military intelligence, with no information provided to families about the reasons for the arrests or where detainees were being held.

Lebanon should uphold the rights of Syrian refugees and protect them from being returned to violence, torture, and persecution.

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