Briefly last week – all too briefly – Abdul Halim Attar became the face of the unimaginable human tragedy that Syria’s descent into civil war has become. Mr Attar was photographed on the streets of Beirut selling pens, with his exhausted daughter slumped over his shoulder. Two heartbreaking photographs – one of Mr Attar looking quietly desperate, another of his daughter’s tired face – went viral, leading to a social media campaign that has, so far, raised hundreds of thousands of dirhams.
Mr Attar and his daughter are the human faces of a desperate tragedy. Syria's civil war has spilled across every one of its borders, sending nearly 2 million people into Turkey, and more than a million each to Lebanon and Jordan. Mr Attar's situation is the result of the Middle East's worst war.
Across the Bosphorus, Europe is also facing an unprecedented crisis: the largest movement of people since the Second World War. Again, the crisis is so great – more than 300,000 people have tried to cross the Mediterranean this year – that it can only be understood in glimpses. The decomposing remains of 71 migrants in a lorry in Austria. The drowning of 200 refugees off the coast of Libya.
It is tempting to reference the Second World War in order to give an idea of the magnitude of the crisis. But the world is much different today from 1945. For a start, the Syrian civil war is in its fifth year, with no end in sight. The longer it continues, the less plausible it is that Syrian refugees can remain in limbo, either in refugee camps in the Arab world, or in camps on the edges of the European Union.
Moreover, the longer it continues, the less likely it is that they will return. Not all Syrians are in refugee camps. The luckier ones have started new lives in Istanbul, Beirut, Berlin and London. Once their children are in school and their careers resume a trajectory, few will easily return.
Europe and the Arab world, then, need a viable plan to cope. It must be a plan that keeps as many of Syria’s refugees in situ as possible – and that will only happen if the camps are properly funded. This is Europe’s responsibility, too.
The best solution of all is one that appears impossible for now. Returning Syrians to Syria will require an end to the conflict. But no one knows how that will, or can, happen.
