| In which the AFP reporter demonstrates a little knowledge without historic perspective quickly leads down a predetermined wrong path. Genesis tells of a period of drought that led Abraham and Sarah to find refuge in Egypt, and another drought that sent Jacob and his sons to find refuge there again. |
[AnNahar] People who fled Syria in recent years are often viewed as war refugees because of the violence that has engulfed much of the country since 2011.
But those from the northern and northeastern parts of Syria may more accurately be viewed as climate refugees, fleeing not a worsening conflict but an increasingly severe drought.
I have been studying various aspects of water and food security in the Middle East for a long time. Now I have begun a new project studying the social and economic conditions needed to repatriate rural refugees to the farming communities in Syria. |