UN: Lebanon may need camps for flood of Syrian refugees

Lebanon should consider setting up transit centers to absorb the waves of refugees fleeing neighboring Syria and may have to establish formal refugee camps if the influx continues, a United Nations refugee official said.

The tiny and fragile Mediterranean state already hosts 260,000 refugees - equivalent to 6.5% of its population - and has sought to absorb them in homes and communities, fearing large camps of Sunni Muslim Syrians could inflame sectarian tensions still smoldering from its own 1975-1990 civil war. (Reuters)