{"id":20431,"date":"2017-02-23T11:37:04","date_gmt":"2017-02-23T11:37:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.acnmalta.org\/?p=20431"},"modified":"2017-02-23T11:37:04","modified_gmt":"2017-02-23T11:37:04","slug":"middle-east-christians-divided-over-safe-zones-for-refugees-acn-malta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2017\/02\/23\/middle-east-christians-divided-over-safe-zones-for-refugees-acn-malta\/","title":{"rendered":"MIDDLE EAST Christians divided over \u2018Safe Zones\u2019 for refugees &#8211; ACN Malta"},"content":{"rendered":"<style type=\"text\/css\"><\/style><h2><strong><span style=\"color: #000000;\">MIDDLE EAST &#8211; Christians divided over \u2018safe zones\u2019 for refugees<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Christian humanitarian and aid groups are divided over whether the policy of creating Safe Zones for refugees in the Middle East will work. \u201cSafe Zones\u201d would be areas set up in the war-torn countries for civilians displaced by the conflict to live in security as they wait to return home. They could be established in both rural and urban areas to provide economic incentives for the population and even return displaced persons to their homes.<\/p>\n<p>In practice Safe Zones are not easy to enforce and could even prove detrimental to those they are trying to protect. With so many regional actors like Turkey and Iran involved in the Syrian conflict and waging \u201cproxy wars\u201d there, civilians inside safe zones could still be at high risk of bombings and attacks.<\/p>\n<p>Bill O\u2019Keefe, vice president of government relations at Catholic Relief Services, commented: \u201cThe Syrian conflict is such a hornet\u2019s nest of proxy wars, to think that in the midst of that a safe zone will be safe indefinitely is just unlikely.\u201d He is unconvinced the idea will work. \u201cOnce you declare a safe zone, you\u2019re responsible for keeping the people inside safe for as long as necessary,\u201d O\u2019Keefe said, adding that they \u201ccan be extremely expensive and difficult to sustain.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>O\u2019Keefe worries that placing so many refugees in one place could make them even more vulnerable.<br \/> \u201cThey can become more of a target and even if there\u2019s a sincere effort at providing a security umbrella, you have a lot of vulnerable people concentrated in a very defined area, and for those who want to harm those people, in some ways it\u2019s actually easier,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n<p>Also Safe Zones do not provide a lasting solution for families who just want to live a \u201cnormal life.\u201d<br \/>If the conflict does not end soon, the zones could become dead-ends where parents are unable to earn a living and children can\u2019t go to school. Safe Zones are at best a temporary measure that\u201c doesn\u2019t prepare them to rebuild their society and to go back and play a productive role in wherever they are,\u201d<br \/>he said.<\/p>\n<p>O\u2019Keefe believes the US should put its diplomatic energy into pursuing peace at the local and regional levels in the Middle East, as well as the \u201cregional and global actors that are, in one way or another, engaged in various proxy battles\u201d in Syria. Providing adequate humanitarian assistance to displaced persons in Syria and neighboring countries should also be a priority.<\/p>\n<p>Phillippe Nassif, executive director of the group In Defense of Christians is less critical of the Safe Zones concept: \u201cWe think it\u2019s within the United States\u2019s national security interests to support the creation of safe zones to at least stop the exodus of people leaving Syria and move that conflict more toward a resolution which is favorable to Christians.\u201d He admitted Safe Zones would require \u201ctroops on the ground and a no-fly zone\u201d to maintain security.<\/p>\n<p>The Syrian conflict has created the world\u2019s largest refugee crisis, with around five million refugees having fled the country and over six million displaced persons living within the country\u2019s borders.<br \/>One million registered refugees live in neighboring Lebanon and many others fled to Turkey, Jordan, and Europe. This has created an unsustainable refugee situation that threatens to destabilize the region around Syria and spread the conflict to other countries as well.<\/p>\n<p>Nassif said \u201cWe\u2019re really concerned about Lebanon\u201d, where an estimated one in four persons is a refugee. He added \u201cIt is a perfect example of a country where Christians and Muslims co-exist in the region. There\u2019s a Christian president in the country, but we\u2019re very worried that this huge burden on the state and economic and a security burden is not alleviated any time soon, that Lebanon will have its own problems and potential collapse.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe longer the conflict goes in Syria, the more likely Christians are going to just be continuing to leave at the rate they\u2019ve been leaving from the country,\u201d he said. Nassif maintains that Safe Zones would ease the burden on neighboring countries that shelter refugees by stemming the flow of refugees from Syria and keep Syrians relatively close to their homes, to which they hope to return. Even though Safe Zones may be risky they are still preferable to the current situation for many embattled religious and ethnic minorities such as Christians, Yazidis, Kurds and Alowites.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em><strong>ACN Malta<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MIDDLE EAST &#8211; Christians divided over \u2018safe zones\u2019 for refugees &nbsp; Christian humanitarian and aid groups are divided over whether the policy of creating Safe Zones for refugees in the Middle East will work. \u201cSafe Zones\u201d would be areas set up in the war-torn countries for civilians displaced by the conflict to live in security&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20433,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-e-newsletters","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>MIDDLE EAST Christians divided over \u2018Safe Zones\u2019 for refugees - ACN Malta - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2017\/02\/23\/middle-east-christians-divided-over-safe-zones-for-refugees-acn-malta\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"MIDDLE EAST Christians divided over \u2018Safe Zones\u2019 for refugees - ACN Malta - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"MIDDLE EAST &#8211; Christians divided over \u2018safe zones\u2019 for refugees &nbsp; Christian humanitarian and aid groups are divided over whether the policy of creating Safe Zones for refugees in the Middle East will work. \u201cSafe Zones\u201d would be areas set up in the war-torn countries for civilians displaced by the conflict to live in security...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2017\/02\/23\/middle-east-christians-divided-over-safe-zones-for-refugees-acn-malta\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-02-23T11:37:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Chaldean-Catholic-Mar-Elia-Refugee-Camp-in-ErbilV2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"547\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"365\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"ACN Malta Media\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"ACN Malta Media\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2017\/02\/23\/middle-east-christians-divided-over-safe-zones-for-refugees-acn-malta\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2017\/02\/23\/middle-east-christians-divided-over-safe-zones-for-refugees-acn-malta\/\",\"name\":\"MIDDLE EAST Christians divided over \u2018Safe Zones\u2019 for refugees - ACN Malta - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2017\/02\/23\/middle-east-christians-divided-over-safe-zones-for-refugees-acn-malta\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2017\/02\/23\/middle-east-christians-divided-over-safe-zones-for-refugees-acn-malta\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Chaldean-Catholic-Mar-Elia-Refugee-Camp-in-ErbilV2.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-02-23T11:37:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-02-23T11:37:04+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#\/schema\/person\/3c01ab68e03f1b76347f9f6ac439a9d2\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2017\/02\/23\/middle-east-christians-divided-over-safe-zones-for-refugees-acn-malta\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2017\/02\/23\/middle-east-christians-divided-over-safe-zones-for-refugees-acn-malta\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2017\/02\/23\/middle-east-christians-divided-over-safe-zones-for-refugees-acn-malta\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Chaldean-Catholic-Mar-Elia-Refugee-Camp-in-ErbilV2.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Chaldean-Catholic-Mar-Elia-Refugee-Camp-in-ErbilV2.jpg\",\"width\":547,\"height\":365},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2017\/02\/23\/middle-east-christians-divided-over-safe-zones-for-refugees-acn-malta\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"MIDDLE EAST Christians divided over \u2018Safe Zones\u2019 for refugees &#8211; 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