What is it like in an area that refugees have fled from?

My guess is that your imagination can approach the truth. You need simply assume that it’s worse.

My girlfriend’s great grandma fled (was chased out of) Turkey, to a Greek island, nearby.
My girlfriend knows the whole exact story as to who was who and what; I have difficulty recollecting all the facts.
There was a conflict going on, that much I know.
It, apparently, is one of the lesser known, and lesser reported on, big issues in the modern history of Europe and Minor Asia.
Many, many people lost their lives and livelihood.
I’ve seen paintings depicting the drama, and on it there was a coastal village, from which the people were chased into the sea, from beaches and cliffs.
Burning houses and churches in the background.
Pillaging and raping going on.

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My girlfriend, together with her mom, and aunt, went to the village (in what is now Turkey; a small trip from their island) and it was now a ghost town.
They even found the ruïnes of the house great granny had lived.
There was still the old stone oven in the ruïne.
I think she told me that in the years after the drama, other people took possession of the houses and other buildings.
I might even have some photos of said village.

I was in a deserted Arab village right after the Six Day War. My friend’s family friend was a singer being taken to entertain Israeli troupes. We walked through the open doors of Arab houses into rooms with scattered school books and clothes on the floors. It was pretty devastating and made me even more anti-war than I already was.

@rebbel I think that conflict is depicted in the beginning of a novel – maybe MIddlesex by Eugenides. I hadn’t heard of it before that.

Thanks, @janbb, I’ll look into that.
My girlfriend might be very interested in it as well (if she hasn’t already read it; she’s a bookworm).

“Are people’s former homes looted? destroyed? appropriated? Does anyone protect the area?”
– The answers to all those questions is “maybe” and it depends very much on the situation. e.g Was there fighting in that area, and what kind, and who was there when there was fighting there. Also what are the armies (and any remaining civilians) of the opposing sides like? (i.e. How often do they tend to loot, abuse, and/or kill civilians?) And did armies foreign to the area spend time there, and how much time? Are any military units, stragglers, or opportunists/looters stll there? And also what’s currently going on in the conflict? If there’s nearby combat? Does the side that claims this territory have any “peacekeeping” forces or police assigned to the area, or not? And what edicts have the issued about who is allowed in the area, and what will be done to them?

“Once people start to leave in large numbers, what happens to those who remain?”
– At first, they generally worry about what to do.

“Once the majority have gone, does everyone else really have to go for their own safety?”
– That really depends on the situation, what really ends up happening, and what those people’s needs and definitions of safety is. It’s possible someone hiding in a basement with the supplies they need turn out to have been safer than the people who left their homes and what ends up happening to them.

“Have you ever been in such an area yourself? Have you ever had to evacuate for reasons of political or military conflict? Could you ever go back?”
– No, I haven’t.

It is not easy viewing but this is the city of Homs in Syria as it is now.

This thread reminds me of There But For Fortune, performed by Joan Baez.

@Brian1946, why?