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OTTAWA — Immigration Minister John McCallum has long warned about a possible backlash if Canadians feel Syrian refugees are jumping to the front of the queue for health care, housing and other social services.

Now Canada’s foreign aid minister says the Liberal government will be spending millions of dollars to make sure such a backlash doesn’t erupt in Jordan and Lebanon, which are struggling with millions of Syrian and Iraqi refugees.

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tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Canada to help prevent anti-refugee backlash in Lebanon, Jordan, International Development Minister says Back to video

“When your kid doesn’t have the same number of hours in school because you have to give some place to the refugees, it’s hard to accept,” International Development Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau said in an interview.

“So that’s why these countries (Jordan and Lebanon) are really concerned. Their challenge is to make sure their own population is treated correctly, so they have to find a way to cohabitate. So they will have to give some job opportunities.”

Jordan is hosting more than 600,000 refugees while Lebanon has been flooded with more than one million since the Syrian civil war erupted in 2011. Bibeau said she had recently visited one city in Jordan where the population had grown to 800,000 from 600,000 in just two years, thanks to an influx of refugees.