International relief agencies are adapting to the grim truth that an estimated 2 million Syrians may not be able to return home for a long time...

Syrian Refugees Suffer the Hardships

 of a Protracted Civil War

BY JOAN FRAWLEY DESMOND

When Caroline Brennan met with newly arrived Syrian refugees in Jordan this July, she heard familiar stories of women and children forced to flee their homes without papers, money or food, while men stayed behind to protect family property.

But while the accounts of bombing attacks, deaths of loved ones and sudden destitution echoed the stories she had heard during a 2012 trip to refugee camps in the Middle East, there was also a stark difference.

In 2012, “they would tell me they were returning in a matter of weeks — ‘whenever the fighting stops.’ Now, they talk about a year or more,” Brennan, a communications staffer with Catholic Relief Services, told the Register.

The shift in expectations marks the refugees’ growing realization that Syria’s civil war, now in its third year, shows no signs of drawing to a close. Indeed, experts fear it could morph into a regional sectarian conflict between Sunni and Shiite forces, with Christians caught in the middle.

International relief agencies are also adapting to the grim truth that an estimated 2 million Syrians now residing in camps and local housing in Jordon, Lebanon, Egypt, Iraq and Turkey may not be able to return home for some time to come. So while aid groups have stepped up the tempo of emergency food, shelter and medical treatment, they are also working on long-term assistance.

......................

Read more: www.ncregister.com