tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33903504084239406732024-02-07T05:58:28.392+01:00Info on Syrian Refugees in TurkeyNews, reports and other documents on Syrian refugees in Turkey.Syria Monitorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02565017886866968391noreply@blogger.comBlogger240125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3390350408423940673.post-28861965541818633152016-06-07T16:02:00.002+02:002016-06-07T16:02:31.278+02:00Syrian Refugees in Turkey: The Long Road Ahead<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Turkey now hosts the world’s largest community of Syrians displaced by the ongoing conflict in their country. According to United Nations estimates, Turkey’s Syrian refugee population was more than 1.7 million as of mid-March 2015, and the large unregistered refugee population may mean the true figure is even larger. Turkish reception policies at the outset were predicated on the assumption that the conflict would come to a swift conclusion, allowing the displaced Syrians to return home, but as conditions continue to deteriorate in Syria and the conflict stretches into its fifth year, it has become clear that a shift in policy to encompass longer-term solutions is needed.</div>
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The Syrian refugee crisis arose as the Turkish government was in the midst of overhauling its immigration system to meet international—and, particularly, European Union—standards. The implementation of these reforms has limited Turkish authorities' capacity to manage the Syrian inflows, and as a result, management of the crisis was left largely in the hands of national organizations working on the ground, in camps, without larger policy guidance. Meanwhile, formal immigration channels, including recognition of refugee status, remain restricted to Europeans, while non-Europeans receive temporary protection status and are expected at some point to resettle in a third country.</div>
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This report provides an overview of Turkey’s migration landscape and the position of Syrian refugees in Turkey today. It also offers an assessment of current policy approaches toward displaced Syrians in Turkey, looking at changes in Turkey’s asylum and protection regime before discussing ongoing challenges and future policy directions in this area. Finally, it discusses policy recommendations—both for Turkey and for other states—given the likelihood of long-term or permanent displacement for Syrians.</div>
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Table of Contents </div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I. Introduction</strong></div>
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An Evolving Legal Framework</div>
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A. Meeting the Needs of a Growing Refugee Population</div>
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B. Policy Responses to the Changing Realities of the Syrian Refugee Crisis</div>
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A. Challenges to the Settlement and Integration of Syrian Refugees</div>
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B. Ongoing Policy Challenges</div>
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C. Future Policy Directions</div>
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Syria Monitorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02565017886866968391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3390350408423940673.post-51582029287543049902016-06-07T15:59:00.001+02:002016-06-07T16:00:09.072+02:00Tales of survival in Syrian refugee camp, UNHCR Camp Suruc in Turkey<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
AS conflict continues to ravage Syria, and the number of internally
displaced people grows, we can lose sight of individual stories.<br />
<br />
Last
month, I visited one the largest UNHCR camps, Camp Suruc, at the
Syrian/Turkish border. It houses around 35000 people in 7000 tents. Most
of the refugees are Syrian. Out of the 3 million refugees that Turkey
is hosting, 2.7 million are Syrian. Most refugees in this camp were
Kurds.<br />
The camps are divided into 15 neighbourhoods and this small village has basic shops, a hairdresser, and a supermarket.<br />
<br />
The
Turkish officials talked about their “Syrian brothers and sisters” and
explained they were ‘‘guests’’ in their country. This language says a
lot.<br />
Within the camp — and in houses outside the camp — I met kind
men and strong women and resilient children, all of whose lives have
been shattered, all of whom had trauma.<br />
Many were white-collar
workers, such as public servants and qualified professionals. They fled
their homes with little more than the clothes on their backs and, often,
with relatives left behind.<br />
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We know that life goes on in refugee camps. People fall
in love, get married and have children. Like in any community, bad
things occur as well. We know that in a crisis setting issues such as
violence and abuse are compounded.<br />
Evidence suggests child
marriage has increased in this current conflict for many women and
girls. But we do not know exact figures.<br />
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I
met with one family in a house in the heart of old Sanliurfa. It was
described as a “two-storey house with a garden”. Of course, the rooms
were bare and housed many people from each family in one room. Yet, the
gratitude of the Syrian refugees is overwhelming.<br />
<br />
Despite their
circumstances, they emphasised their happiness at the moment the border
opened and they ephasize the kind support of the Turkish people.<br />
One
form of support is the World Food Program (WFP) which supplies e-food
cards for special WFP supermarkets. Australia contributes to the WFP
programs in countries around Syria.<br />
A critical element of support
is provided through community centres. The Middle East Peace Research
(IMPR) runs a community centre in Sanliufa that delivers activities such
as Turkish courses, computer training, hairdressing and sewing classes.<br />
I
watched as young women practised doing hair and make-up, all behind
curtains away from male eyes, and I talked to budding artists, even a
rap star who made us cry with his lyrics that captured his family’s
ordeal.<br />
<br />
I saw men and women training on computers and practising
their languages (yes, most were multilingual). We know that ensuring
continuing education for children especially in humanitarian disasters
is essential. That is what this centre is doing.<br />
The art classes
serve a range of purposes. The centre provides psychological support,
and part of this is the recreational activities they undertake. Some of
the pictures that were drawn and painted by children and adults were
confronting insights into things they had experienced: death of loved
ones, abuse, pain and child labour.<br />
I left the camp with an embroidered towel made by the women — a kind gift from people who are living with so little.<br />
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Source: http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/opinion/natasha-stott-despoja-tales-of-survival-in-syrian-refugee-camp-unhcr-camp-suruc-in-turkey/news-story/b4889efb0833ed4ff282f27f1d4a31fc </div>
Syria Monitorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02565017886866968391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3390350408423940673.post-1362103823855850532016-06-06T22:49:00.001+02:002016-06-07T11:30:19.438+02:00‘Poverty rivalry’ among the poor in Turkey<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , "tahoma" , "georgia" , "times new roman" , "times" , "arial"; font-size: 14px;">MELİS ALPHAN </span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , "tahoma" , "georgia" , "times new roman" , "times" , "arial"; font-size: 14px;">There is a change in the story of poverty in Turkey. As those at the lowest level of the social income ladder climb over time, other groups take over the “poverty duty.” </span><br />
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Seasonal mobile agricultural labor is one of the stops where different social groups take over at different times. Poor people from Georgia, <a href="http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/tag/Azerbaijan" style="color: #00569f; outline: none; text-decoration: none;">Azerbaijan</a> and Syria are added to the existing workers from Turkey’s east and southeast. Now they are all struggling to do the same job – struggling with each other and also with workers from Turkey. This is reflected in wages and conditions.<br />
<br />
The most recent field reports show that poverty has turned into a competition between the poor. More than one group is competing for the same job at the same time.<br />
<br />
With the addition of foreign migrant workers from different countries to the workers of different ethnic origins, rivalry within the poor has been fueled. The report says that with the inclusion of the Syrians in agricultural production, a portion of local workers have been excluded and worker fees have declined. The most important criteria in wages is whether or not there is competition among agricultural workers. The lowest wages are in Gaziantep and Çukurova because there are many Syrian workers there.<br />
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The Syrian workers picking apricots in Malatya generally work for two-thirds the daily allowance of local workers. While local shepherds earn 3,000 Turkish Liras per month in Malatya, Syrian shepherds are happy with 1,000 liras.<br />
<br />
Child labor is also prevalent among Syrians in Turkey. With so many Syrian families struggling to continue their struggle for life, many family members have to contribute, which leads to child labor. The low rate of schooling among Syrian refugees leaves only one choice for the children: To work out in the fields and orchards.<br />
<br />
Besides all the obvious difficulties, migrant workers are also discriminated against. They are more subject to racism, ethnic discrimination, maltreatment and bad working conditions than local workers. For instance locals in Kars, Ardahan, Ordu, Giresun and <a href="http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/tag/Trabzon" style="color: #00569f; outline: none; text-decoration: none;">Trabzon</a> do not want Syrians in their province. The reason why the number of Georgian workers is increasing in the hazelnut harvest in the <a href="http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/tag/Black%20Sea" style="color: #00569f; outline: none; text-decoration: none;">Black Sea</a> region is that the owners of orchards do not want to hire Kurdish workers.<br />
<br />
Apparently seasonal mobile agriculture labor, with the addition of foreign migrant workers, carries the potential to ignite clashes among workers. The increase in labor supply, the lack of any rise in fees, and the decrease in the amount of work and income per family, deepen labor abuse and create clashes between local workers and especially Syrian workers. This tension is likely to rise further.<br />
<br />
Life is difficult for Syrians in Turkey. The existence of working conditions that are incompatible with human dignity makes the country yet another field of struggle, rather than a final escape destination.<br />
<br />
Studies clearly show that in order to secure the protection of millions of migrant workers - almost all of whom are unregistered - and for them to obtain a secure status, Turkey needs to make significant changes in its refugee regime.<br />
<br />
Source: http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/poverty-rivalry-among-the-poor-in-turkey.aspx?pageID=238&nID=100118&NewsCatID=507 </div>
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Syria Monitorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02565017886866968391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3390350408423940673.post-8460919263847311422016-06-03T14:49:00.001+02:002016-06-03T14:50:22.004+02:00 AI report: No safe refuge: Asylum-seekers and refugees denied effective protection in Turkey<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The European Union (EU) must immediately halt plans to return
asylum-seekers to Turkey on the false pretence that it is a “safe
country” for refugees, said Amnesty International in a briefing
published today.<br />
<br />
The briefing, <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/eur44/3825/2016/en/">No safe refuge: Asylum-seekers and refugees denied effective protection in Turkey</a>,
details the short-comings in Turkey’s asylum system and the hardships
refugees face there that would render their return under the <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2016/03/eu-turkey-refugee-deal-a-historic-blow-to-rights/">EU-Turkey Agreement</a> of 18 March illegal – and unconscionable.<br />
<br />
The briefing shows that Turkey’s asylum system is struggling to cope
with more than three million asylum-seekers and refugees. As a result,
asylum-seekers face years waiting for their cases to be dealt with,
during which time they receive little or no support to find shelter and
sustenance for themselves and their families, with children as young as
nine working to support families.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The EU-Turkey deal is reckless and illegal.</span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><footer class="quote__source" data-scenario="quote_author"><span style="font-size: large;">John Dalhuisen, Amnesty International’s Director for Europe and Central Asia.</span></footer>
</blockquote>
“The EU-Turkey deal is reckless and illegal. Amnesty International’s
findings expose as a fiction the idea that Turkey is able to respect the
rights and meet the needs of over three million asylum-seekers and
refugees,” said John Dalhuisen, Amnesty International’s Director for
Europe and Central Asia.<br />
“In its relentless efforts to prevent irregular arrivals to Europe,
the EU has wilfully misrepresented what is actually happening on the
ground in Turkey. It is to be expected that a new asylum system, in a
country hosting the largest number of refugees in the world, would
struggle. While there is value in supporting and encouraging Turkey to
develop a fully functioning asylum system, the EU cannot act as if it
already exists.”<br />
<h3>
Turkey failing to protect refugees</h3>
Despite its broadly welcoming attitude towards refugees, the large
numbers of people – about 2.75 million Syrian refugees and 400,000
asylum-seekers and refugees from other countries (primarily Afghanistan,
Iraq and Iran) – have inevitably placed a considerable strain both on
Turkey’s new asylum system and its capacity to meet people’s basic
needs.<br />
The report shows how the Turkish asylum system fails three crucial
tests required under international law for the return of asylum seekers
to Turkey to be lawful: status, durable solutions and subsistence.<br />
<h4>
<em>1. Status</em></h4>
Turkey lacks the capacity to process asylum applications, meaning
that hundreds of thousands of asylum-seekers and refugees languish in
legal limbo for years at a time. The Turkish authorities have refused to
provide Amnesty International with asylum statistics. In April,
however, they reported having processed around 4,000 applications, or
1.5% of the 266,000 applications registered with the UN Refugee Agency,
in 2015.<br />
<h4>
<em>2. Durable Solutions</em></h4>
Refugees should either be integrated in the country, resettled to
another country or, if safe, repatriated to their country of origin.
However, Turkey denies full refugee status, and with it integration, to
all non-European refugees, while the international community is failing
to provide anywhere close to sufficient resettlement options/places.
This leaves refugees in a double-bind, where they cannot build a new
life in Turkey but they have little hope of being offered the option to
resettle to another country in the coming years, if at all.<br />
<br />
Faiza, (whose name has been changed) and her sister, both Afghans,
fled forced marriages in Iran and were recognized as refugees in Turkey.
For three years, they waited in vain for an interview at a resettlement
country’s embassy. In the end they did not see any option but to risk
their lives in a smuggler’s boat to Greece.<br />
<br />
Faiza told Amnesty International that had there been any reasonable
prospect of leaving Turkey safely and regularly, and some support while
waiting for the process to conclude, she and her sister would have
waited. She explained: “If there was any hope of resettlement, we would
have waited. We were really scared of the journey to Europe because we
knew it was dangerous. But…we were so desperate. We said to ourselves:
‘Maybe we will die, maybe we won’t arrive – but it doesn’t matter
because we can’t stay in Turkey anymore.’”<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="quote" data-scenario="quote_text">
<div class="quote__text">
<span style="font-size: large;">Maybe we will die, maybe we won’t arrive – but it doesn’t matter because we can’t stay in Turkey anymore.</span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><footer class="quote__source" data-scenario="quote_author"><span style="font-size: large;">Faiza, Afghan asylum-seeker (name has been changed)</span></footer>
</blockquote>
<h4>
<em>3. Subsistence </em></h4>
The vast majority of Syrian and other refugees are forced to seek
shelter without government support. Although the Turkish authorities are
accommodating more than 264,000 Syrian refugees in camps in the
southern border provinces, they cannot realistically provide shelter for
the remaining 90% (2.48 million) from Syria. Meanwhile, it has only
made social housing available for 100 of the 400,000 (0.025%)
asylum-seekers and refugees from other countries. This means that
approximately three million asylum-seekers and refugees are being left
to meet their own shelter needs as best they can.<br />
Amnesty International researchers interviewed 57 refugees in Turkey
between March and May 2016. All described the struggle to survive with
almost no financial support from the authorities, with the vast majority
relying on charity from family members, fellow asylum-seekers, or
religious communities.<br />
<br />
Refugees told Amnesty International how they live in shoddy or
make-shift accommodation, sometimes sleeping in mosques, parks and metro
stations because they cannot afford the rent. Two Afghan families were
sleeping under a bridge in Istanbul after three of their children
drowned in a failed sea-crossing.<br />
<br />
“Turkey has been a generous host of refugees, but its promises to EU
leaders are simply not reflected in the situation on the ground. Asylum
seekers and refugees are stuck for years in Turkey and, while they’re
waiting, are given neither support nor the right to support themselves,”
said John Dalhuisen.<br />
<blockquote class="quote" data-scenario="quote_text">
<div class="quote__text">
<span style="font-size: large;">This is a reality check for Europe’s leaders.</span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><footer class="quote__source" data-scenario="quote_author"><span style="font-size: large;">John Dalhuisen</span></footer>
</blockquote>
“This is a reality check for Europe’s leaders. It may be politically
expedient to outsource their legal duty to help people fleeing conflict,
but if they think they can do this either lawfully or without
inflicting additional misery on people already fleeing terrible
suffering, they are tragically and quite obviously mistaken.”<br />
<br />
<h3>
Child refugees working to make ends meet</h3>
The briefing also warns that child labour is common among refugees in Turkey as families struggle to meet basic needs.<br />
<br />
A Syrian mother of three boys told Amnesty International that her
entire family of seven survives on the 5-10 Turkish Lira a day (about
US$1.75 to $3.50) that her nine-year old son earns working at a grocery
store. The shrapnel injuries her husband sustained in Syria prevent him
from working.<br />
EU must share, not outsource, responsibility<br />
<br />Rather than
off-loading its responsibilities on Turkey, the EU should be looking to
kick-start an ambitious resettlement programme for refugees currently in
the country.<br />
<br />
While Turkey hosts more than three million asylum-seekers and
refugees, more than any other country in the world, EU member states
collectively resettled only 8,155 refugees from around the world in
2015.<br />
<br />
“The European Union has responded to one of the darkest humanitarian
catastrophes of our time by putting up fences, deploying more border
guards, and striking dodgy deals with neighbouring countries to keep
people out. The result is misery and suffering, and more deaths at sea,”
said John Dalhuisen.<br />
<h3>
Background: EU-Turkey deal already undermined by forcible returns from Turkey to Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria</h3>
On 18 March 2016, the EU and Turkey agreed to a <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2016/03/eu-turkey-refugee-deal-a-historic-blow-to-rights/">far-reaching migration control deal</a>
- formally a statement. In exchange for up to €6 billion as well as
political concessions from the EU, Turkey agreed to take back all
“irregular migrants” who cross into the Greek islands after 20 March.<br />
The justification for the EU-Turkey deal is the assumption that
Turkey is a safe place to which asylum-seekers and refugees can be
returned. Beyond not respecting refugee rights within Turkey (the
subject of this report), another way in which a country might not be
“safe” is if it sends people to other countries where they face a risk
of serious human rights violations. Previous Amnesty International
research has already shown that in late 2015 and early 2016,
asylum-seekers and refugees in Turkey were sent back to precisely such a
risk in <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2016/03/turkey-safe-country-sham-revealed-dozens-of-afghans-returned/">Afghanistan</a>, <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/eur44/3022/2015/en/">Iraq </a>and <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/press-releases/2016/04/turkey-illegal-mass-returns-of-syrian-refugees-expose-fatal-flaws-in-eu-turkey-deal/">Syria</a>.<br />
<br />
Source: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2016/06/eus-reckless-refugee-returns-to-turkey-illegal/ <br />
</div>
</div>
Syria Monitorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02565017886866968391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3390350408423940673.post-15521957616022391612016-06-01T17:23:00.000+02:002016-06-02T17:49:39.508+02:00Appeals Committee on Lesbos stops deportations to Turkey<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<b>PRO ASYL calls for an end to the inhuman large-scale experiment in the Aegean – stop deportations to Turkey! </b>
<br />
<div class="wpb_text_column wpb_content_element ">
<div class="wpb_wrapper">
Yesterday night three positive decisions by the Administrative
Appeals Committee of Lesbos were published. Lawyers of the PRO ASYL
project “Refugee Support Program in the Aegean (RSPA)” represented nine
Syrian protection seekers before the second instance on 20 and 21 April.
The concerned asylum seekers were greatly relieved to receive the news
that their deportation to Turkey has now been stopped. By now ten
decisions by Appeals Committees have been published in which it is
asserted that Turkey is no “safe third country” for Syrian refugees.
There are a number of further positive decisions which have not been
delivered yet. Despite of massive pressure from the European Commission
and the responsible Greek Minister for Migration, the members of the
Appeals Committee held up and decided in favor of the protection
seekers.<br />
“We thank our lawyers and the whole RSPA-team for their work and
dedication. Since the commencement of the cynical deal with Erdogan our
project partners are working day and night in order to support
protection seekers in exercising their rights in spite of an unlawful
procedure” says Karl Kopp, PRO ASYL Director of European Affairs.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
PRO ASYL calls for an end to this cynical large-scale experiment.
Deportations to Turkey must be stopped. According to Kopp “The EU-Turkey
Deal has caused a human rights disaster in the Aegean”.<br />
Thousands of protection seekers have been detained since 20 March;
there is a lack of food, medical treatment is insufficient. The
detention camps and provisional shelters are overcrowded, the hygienic
situation is catastrophic. In the so-called “Hotspots”, protection
seekers can hardly get any information regarding the procedure. Only a
few donation funded lawyers try to appeal against negative first
instance decisions and have to do so under most difficult circumstances.
In this situation where the provision of basic needs and security for
refugees in the camps can’t be guaranteed, there cannot be a procedure
in accordance with the rule of law.<br />
From the beginning this was clear to the EU, the German government
and all observers of the situation. Since the responsible decision
makers in Brussels and Berlin do not care about the human rights of
refugees but only about deportations to Turkey, the resulting chaos was
knowingly accepted. PRO ASYL will support appeals up to the highest
European Courts in order to end the rightlessness of protection seekers
on the Greek islands.<br />
<br />
<b>Source</b>: https://www.proasyl.de/en/pressrelease/appeals-committee-on-lesbos-stops-deportations-to-turkey/ </div>
</div>
</div>
Syria Monitorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02565017886866968391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3390350408423940673.post-38767473718468771392016-05-28T18:05:00.000+02:002016-06-02T18:06:28.034+02:00165,000 Syrian refugees trapped between ISIS and the Turkish border <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Turkish border guards watch ISIS militants in Syria order refugees away from the Tal Abyad-Akçakale border crossing in June 2015. Photo: AFP" height="248" id="articleBigImage" src="http://rudaw.net/ContentFiles/219282Image1.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Turkish border guards watch ISIS militants in Syria order refugees away from the Tal Abyad-Akçakale border crossing in June 2015. Photo: AFP" width="400" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Turkish border guards watch ISIS militants in Syria order refugees away
from the Tal Abyad-Akçakale border crossing in June 2015. Photo: AFP
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
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<br />
<br />
The UNHCR says it has alerted Turkey of the situation and reiterates the
rights to refugee protection and safe passage, as enshrined in
international law.<br />
<br />
Medical aid agency Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) reported yesterday
that it was evacuating its staff and patients from the hospital in Al
Salamah because of the ISIS offensive in Azaz, again citing concern for
those trapped between the terrorist group and the Turkish border. </div>
<a name='more'></a><br />
<br />
“For some months, the front line has been around seven kilometers away
from the hospital. Now it is only three kilometers from Al Salamah
town,” said Pablo Marco, MSF’s operations manager for the Middle East in
a statement on its website.<br />
<br />
Noting that people are “trapped between the Turkish border and active
front lines,” Marco said, “There is nowhere for people to flee to as the
fighting gets closer.”<br />
<br />
Human Rights Watch has condemned Turkey for keeping the border closed
and the international community for not demanding Turkey allow the
thousands of refugees to cross the border. The monitoring agency
described it as two walls: one the physical border of the Turkish guards
who have reportedly shot at Syrian asylum seekers and the second, “a
wall of silence by the rest of the world.”<br />
<br />
Human Rights Watch accused the international community and the United
Nations of “turn[ing] a blind eye to Turkey’s breach of international
law.”<br />
<br />
Refugee camps along the border have come under attack from ISIS. And on
May 5, Kamuna camp was hit by three airstrikes that killed at least 20.<br />
<br />
Refugees who have tried to cross the border have come under fire from Turkish border guards, reported Human Rights Watch.<br />
<br />
“The fact that Turkey is generously hosting more than 2.5 million
Syrians does not give it a right to shut its border to other endangered
Syrians,” said the monitoring group in a statement posted on its website
Friday.<br />
<br />
The Islamic State has advanced in the area this week, seizing territory from Turkish-backed fighters along the border.
<br />
<br />
<br />
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region—165,000 civilians are trapped between the
Turkish border and an ISIS offensive near the town of Azaz in northern
Syria. Their plight has raised the concern of multiple organizations who
have called on Turkey to open the border.<br />
<br />
“The UNHCR is deeply concerned about the plight of some 165,000
displaced persons reportedly massing near the Syrian town of Azaz in
northern Syria,” said the UN refugee agency in a statement on their
website on Saturday.<br />
<br />
Source: http://rudaw.net/english/middleeast/syria/280520162 <br />
<br />
</div>
Syria Monitorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02565017886866968391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3390350408423940673.post-9796178065298066682016-05-26T17:42:00.000+02:002016-06-02T17:43:09.995+02:00The Many Failures of the EU-Turkey Refugee Deal<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<strong>Many viewed it with skepticism from the start and now, the
Brussels-Ankara refugee deal is in danger of collapse. Refugees are
being locked up in Turkey and it looks as though the best educated
Syrians are not being allowed to continue to Europe.</strong><br />
If there is one thing Ayasha Nour never wanted to experience again,
it was to be locked up without knowing what was happening to her. Nour,
a French teacher from Damascus, spent 20 days in Moria, a refugee camp
on the Greek island of Lesbos. She slept on the ground in an overcrowded
tent and it was cold with not enough to eat. She repeatedly asked the
Greek officials when a decision would be made on her asylum application,
but they kept putting her off. "Sometimes they would say a week,
sometimes a month and sometimes a year," says Nour.<br />
At the end of April, the young Syrian gave up hope of ever reaching
northern Europe, so she decided to return to Turkey voluntarily.
Officers with Frontex, the European Union's border protection agency,
accompanied Nour and 11 other Syrian refugees on the flight from Lesbos
to southeastern Turkey. According to Nour, before she left Lesbos
officials had promised that she could apply for asylum in Turkey and
would be allowed to move around freely there. But immediately after
landing in Turkey, she and the other returning refugees were taken away
-- as if they were criminals, says Nour.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
She has now been in an internment camp in Düziçi, a city on the
Turkish-Syrian border, for four weeks. "It's like Moria, only worse,"
the Syrian woman says on the telephone. She doesn't want us to use her
real name for fear of reprisals from the Turkish guards.<br />
The internment of Syrian refugees raises new doubts over the
controversial refugee agreement between Europe and Turkey. Indeed, it
appears that the deal is on the verge of falling apart, only two months
after the program began.<br />
The EU had promised Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan 6
billion ($6.7 billion) and political concessions if his government would
take back migrants who reach Greece via Turkey. One of the commitments
Ankara made in a letter to the European Commission was to provide
temporary protection to Syrian returnees.<br />
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has praised the deal with Turkey as
a humane alternative to sealing off Europe's internal borders. But the
fact that the first Syrians who were brought to Turkey from Greece as
part of the new agreement were taken directly to a detention center is
not only a violation of international refugee law, but also an affront
to Merkel.<br />
<b>Food Full of Insects</b>
<br />
As in the dispute over the promise of visa-free travel in the EU
for Turkish citizens, Erdogan's message is clear: We may have signed a
pact, but I determine the rules of the game. This also applies to the
selection of refugees Turkey sends to the European Union, which includes
a conspicuously large number of "serious medical cases."<br />
Hundreds of refugees are confined in Düziçi. Unlike Nour, many of
them didn't make it to Greece. Some were arbitrarily arrested in Turkey,
while others were detained for begging on the streets or selling
tissues, reports the Turkish human rights organization Mülteci-Der.<br />
Nour was trying to reach London to join her husband. She is
pregnant, and yet she is not permitted to leave the Düziçi camp to see a
doctor or meet with an attorney. "I don't know what will happen next or
when I will finally be released," she says.<br />
A woman from Aleppo who was deported from Lesbos to Düziçi with her
four children complains that the cells are overcrowded and the food is
full of insects. Her son is having respiratory problems, she says. A
fellow detainee tried to commit suicide with a shard of glass. "Düziçi
is hell," she says in a broken voice. The Turkish authorities claim that
the Syrians are released once security checks are complete.<br />
Human rights organizations have warned that the rights of migrants
returning from Greece to Turkey are not guaranteed. The Pakistanis,
Afghans and Algerians who were deported from the Greek islands of Lesbos
and Chios in early April were almost all sent to a deportation center
in Kirklareli on the Turkish-Bulgarian border.<br />
The center is off-limits to journalists, aid organizations and
attorneys. Cornelia Ernst, a member of the European Parliament from
Germany's Left Party, visited the facility in early May and said that
conditions there were "shocking" and that detainees are often only
permitted to leave their cells for a few minutes every day. According to
Mülteci-Der, migrants at the camp are systematically hampered in their
efforts to gain access to asylum procedures.<br />
<b>Qualms about Turkey</b>
<br />
The latest reports on the arrests of Syrians have even raised
doubts among supporters of the deal. The internment of people entitled
to protection calls a central premise of the treaty into question, says
Gerald Knaus, chairman of the international think tank European
Stability Initiative -- namely that "refugees who are deported from
Greece are safe in Turkey." Knaus' organization played an instrumental
role in developing the deal with Turkey and advised EU countries.<br />
Brussels expected that Greece would use expedited procedures to
send migrants back to Turkey within a few days. But nothing is happening
quickly at the moment, primarily because Greek asylum officials and
judges are having qualms about recognizing Turkey as a "safe third
country," as demanded by Brussels. They apparently share the concerns of
human rights activists and legal experts, who have repeatedly pointed
to the precarious living conditions among migrants in Turkey. "I have
faith in the independence of the appeals committee," says Ska Keller,
deputy Green Party leader in the European Parliament, who was in Lesbos
recently.<br />
It is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain the claim that
Turkey is a safe place for refugees. According to Amnesty International,
Turkish authorities have deported hundreds of refugees from Turkey back
to Syria in recent months. In early May, Human Rights Watch documented
the cases or five Syrian refugees who were shot dead while attempting to
enter Turkey, allegedly by Turkish border troops. The Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights reported 16 deaths at the Syrian-Turkish
border between December 2015 and March 2016.<br />
The EU has sent 390 migrants from Greece back to Turkey since early
April, far fewer than planned. About 8,000 migrants, a third of them
Syrians, remain in the Aegean islands. The European Commission now
believes that Greek appellate judges may stop one in three deportations
of Syrians. "This strikes at the core of the deal," said a senior
Brussels official.<br />
Europe's goal with the Turkey agreement is deterrence. In recent
weeks, a number of migrants have indeed chosen not to leave Turkey for
Greece, fearing that they would be sent back. If it now emerges that the
Greeks are not deporting migrants nearly as quickly as anticipated,
many more refugees could risk the voyage across the sea again soon,
predicts Metin Çorabatir, chairman of the Ankara-based Research Center
on Asylum and Migration (IGAM).<br />
But the camps on the Greek island are already overcrowded. Food is
scarce and migrants have set garbage cans on fire to protest conditions
in the camps. "We don't know what we'll do if even more people arrive,"
says an official with the Greek Ministry of Migration. Political
consultant Knaus calls it a "disaster in the making."<br />
<b>At Odds</b>
<br />
Nevertheless, the European Union is clinging to the deal, despite
the tense climate between Brussels and Ankara. Erdogan has threatened to
cancel the agreement altogether if EU refuses to grant Turkish citizens
visa-free travel, while Europe has countered that Ankara needs to
reform the Turkish anti-terrorism law first, as agreed.<br />
The Turkish president hardly misses an opportunity to show that he
couldn't care less about what Europeans think -- of his plan, for
instance, to revoke the immunity of members of parliamentarians who
refuse to toe the line, so that they can then be sidelined with the help
of the judiciary. And now that Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has been
ousted, the EU has lost a level-headed dialog partner in Turkey. His
successor, Transportation Minister Binali Yildirim, is seen as an
Erdogan acolyte.<br />
Ankara and Brussels are also at odds over another key element of
the deal: the selection of those Syrians who will be allowed to resettle
in the EU through the so-called 1:1 mechanism. The mechanism refers to
the EU's intention to accept one Syrian directly from Turkey for each
Syrian boat refugee that Ankara takes back from the Greek islands.<br />
But the EU granted Turkey special rights in the selection process
that are uncommon internationally. Normally, experts with the United
Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) decide who qualifies for
resettlement. This was the procedure used previously with refugee
acceptance programs in Jordan and Lebanon. But the Erdogan government
insisted that an agency within the Turkish Interior Ministry be allowed
to make the first selection. Only then are the names sent to the UNHCR. <br />
Officially, the UN agency notes that the expedited procedure is
taking place "in coordination with Turkish authorities and the host
countries." Unofficially, however, UNHCR employees report that they
essentially rubber-stamp the lists that Turkey presents to them. They
have no veto power, nor are they allowed to propose their own
candidates. The host countries only come into play at the end when,
after a security check, they can merely say yes or no to individual
candidates. "The procedure is completely non-transparent," says a German
official.<br />
<b>Keeping the Doctors</b>
<br />
There is also a cynical aspect of the dispute. The EU countries had
actually agreed with Turkey that the selection process should be
balanced. Traumatized and sick migrants were to be allowed to travel,
but also others, including those with family members already living in
Europe.<br />
But now, several European governments have been noticing a large
number of hardship cases among the candidates for resettlement. In an
internal EU meeting in Brussels at the end of April, the Luxembourg
representative found fault with the candidate lists proposed by Turkey,
saying that they are not balanced, "but instead contain either serious
medical cases or refugees with very little education." Ole Schröder, the
parliamentary secretary of state at the German Interior Ministry,
recently reported similar concerns in a closed-door meeting of German
parliament's Committee on Internal Affairs.<br />
Several times in recent weeks, Turkish authorities suddenly
withdrew previously issued exit permits at the last minute. Oddly
enough, they were usually for families with fathers who were
well-trained engineers, doctors or skilled workers. Officials from
Berlin to The Hague to Luxembourg are familiar with such cases. Turkey
has now officially informed the UNHCR that Syrian academics and their
families are no longer permitted to leave the country by way of the 1:1
mechanism.<br />
When the deal with Ankara was being negotiated, a few EU member states
feared that precisely this scenario would materialize. In internal
talks, Germany called for "limits of medical hardship cases," and
Luxembourg noted that it would important to ensure that "the balance
would have to be monitored." But European negotiators were unable to
push through a fixed upper limit for hardship cases.<br />
Fewer than 400 Syrians have been sent to Europe from Turkey to
date. The fact that a dispute is already erupting over the selection of
refugees does not bode well for the future. The original plan was that
the EU would accept up to 72,000 Syrian refugees as part of the
resettlement program.<br />
But that would also require more European countries to agree to
accept refugees. So far, however, only Germany and four other EU
countries, out of a total of 28, are participating in the program. All
others boycotted Merkel's deal with Erdogan.<br />
<b>
<span class="spTextSmaller">By Riham Alkousaa, Giorgos Christides,
Ann-Katrin Müller, Peter Müller, maximillian Popp, Christoph Schult and
Wolf Wiedmann-Schmidt</span>
</b>
<br />
<i>Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan</i><br />
<div>
<h4>
URL:</h4>
<ul>
<li>
<a href="http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/the-refugee-deal-between-the-eu-and-turkey-is-failing-a-1094339.html" title="'Disaster in the Making': The Many Failures of the EU-Turkey Refugee Deal">http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/the-refugee-deal-between-the-eu-and-turkey-is-failing-a-1094339.html</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
Syria Monitorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02565017886866968391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3390350408423940673.post-5470121558994980562016-05-18T17:36:00.000+02:002016-06-02T17:36:31.775+02:00Only 177 Syrian refugees resettled in EU under deal with Turkey<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<img alt="Refugees and migrants onboard a dinghy approach the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey." class="gu-image" height="240" itemprop="contentUrl" src="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/54a228833212af35c8970e67500cb2e28d00997c/0_170_5088_3053/master/5088.jpg?w=300&q=55&auto=format&usm=12&fit=max&s=e82e65092e0544418d5278d547d1b2f7" width="400" /> </div>
Fewer than 200 Syrians have been resettled in Europe under the EU’s controversial refugee deal with Turkey, figures from the <a class="u-underline" data-component="auto-linked-tag" data-link-name="auto-linked-tag" href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/european-commission">European commission</a> have revealed.<br />
<br />
EU leaders agreed in March to take one Syrian from Turkey for every
irregular migrant sent back across the Aegean Sea. Since the deal came
into force, the number of people arriving in Greece has fallen sharply,
but <a class="u-underline" data-component="auto-linked-tag" data-link-name="auto-linked-tag" href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/europe-news">Europe</a> has taken only a tiny number of Syrians from Turkey.<br />
A total of 177 Syrians who were in <a class="u-underline" data-component="auto-linked-tag" data-link-name="auto-linked-tag" href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/turkey">Turkey</a> have been found homes in five EU member states, the figures showed.<br />
<br />
Sweden, Germany and the Netherlands have taken the most people, 52-55
each, while Finland and Lithuania have taken a smaller number (11 and
five respectively). A further 723 Syrians are awaiting transfer to seven
different member states, the commission said.<br />
<br />
Turkey was also promised €3bn (£2.3bn) of refugee aid until 2018 as
well as visa-free access to the EU, subject to conditions. But the <a class="u-underline" data-component="in-body-link" data-link-name="in body link" href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/08/eu-turkey-refugee-deal-qa">deal</a> is at risk of unravelling as Turkey <a class="u-underline" data-component="in-body-link" data-link-name="in body link" href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/06/erdogan-turkey-not-alter-anti-terror-laws-visa-free-travel-eu">refuses to change its anti-terror laws to meet a key EU demand on visa-free travel</a>.<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br /><br />
Another potential pitfall is the mismatch in expectations between
Turkey and the EU over how many Syrians will be resettled in Europe.<br />
<br />
EU countries have said they expect to see 12,000 refugees relocated
from Turkey, well below the 72,000 places that are available under EU
law, and far below the expectations of Turkey, which is sheltering more
than 3.1 million refugees in total.<br />
<br />
Turkish officials expect Europe to airlift substantial numbers of the
2.7 million Syrians now stuck in Turkey, a senior Turkish diplomat said
on Wednesday. “With irregular migration declining, we should activate
the voluntary humanitarian resettlement also,” said Esen Altuğ, deputy
director general for migration at Turkey’s ministry of foreign affairs.<br />
<br />
<br />
The number of migrants being sent back to Turkey from Greece has also
fallen short of EU expectations: fewer than 400 people have been
returned so far.<br />
The EU-Turkey deal is part of a broader push to bring Syrian refugees
in the Middle East to Europe, to take the pressure off states including
Lebanon and Jordan, where large numbers have taken refuge. <br />
The latest figures showed that 6,321 people out of a proposed 20,000
from refugee camps in the region have been resettled in Europe. The UK
has taken the largest number of people (1,864), followed by Austria
(1,443). The British government promised to take 20,000 Syrian refugees
over five years, a <a class="u-underline" data-component="in-body-link" data-link-name="in body link" href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/sep/07/cameron-20000-syrian-refugees-offer-derisory">goal criticised as derisory</a> in comparison to the scale of the problem.<br />
The latest tranche of data also revealed that efforts to relocate
asylum seekers from Italy and Greece remain well off target. In
September 2015, the EU promised to disperse 160,000 asylum seekers
around the bloc to take the pressure off frontline Mediterranean states.
EU officials hoped the first 20,000 people would be rehoused by
mid-May, but Wednesday’s data reveals that only 1,500 people have been
relocated.<br />
Meanwhile, about 46,000 asylum seekers and migrants are in limbo in
Greece, awaiting news of either asylum applications or relocation
decisions.<br />
With the EU failing to relocate significant numbers of refugees from
Greece, and the Greek authorities struggling to care for those stuck in
their detention centres, dozens of asylum seekers in Greece have begun a
hunger strike in protest at their treatment.<br />
On the island of Chios, where more than a thousand asylum seekers
have been detained in squalid conditions since the start of the
EU-Turkey deal, 40 people – 25 women and 15 men – have said they will
not eat until further notice.<br />
<br />
“We left our country to find a better life and education for our
children, not just to live in a camp without doing anything,” said
Wassim Omar, a Syrian father on hunger strike in Chios, who spoke via
WhatsApp because his mouth was taped shut.<br />
“We escaped from Daesh [Islamic state] and Jabhat al-Nusra
[al-Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate], who had threatened to kill us because my
wife and I are teachers, and from the Syrian regime’s army, who wanted
me to do military service. We don’t want to spend our life here, so
because of that we have this hunger strike.”<br />
The European commissioner for migration and home affairs, Dimitris
Avramopoulos, once again urged member states to do more. “We need to
quickly respond to the urgent humanitarian situation in Greece and
prevent deterioration of the situation in Italy.<br />
“In parallel, we need to increase resettlements, mostly from Turkey,
but also from other countries, such as Lebanon and Jordan. Our recent
progress in breaking the smugglers’ business model is only sustainable
if a safe legal channel also opens for asylum seekers.”<br />
Since the EU-Turkey deal came into force on 20 March, the number of
migrants attempting the dangerous sea crossing over the Aegean has
fallen sharply: arrivals were down by 90% in April, compared with the
previous month.<br />
But EU officials are concerned about a likely increase in arrivals
from Italy, as the weather improves. About 8,370 people crossed the
western Mediterranean sea in April, mostly Eritreans, Egyptians and
Nigerians. The decline in Aegean crossings means that Italy has
experienced more migrant arrivals than Greece for the first time since
June 2015.<br />
Guy Verhofstadt, the leader of the Liberal group in the European
parliament, said the relocation and resettlement figures were
disappointing.<br />
The MEP added: “Whether the rotten EU-Turkey agreement is maintained
or not, we know the numbers of refugees and migrants risking their lives
to come to Europe is likely to increase dramatically in the coming
months.<br />
“Instead of constantly trying to outsource our problems to
questionable regimes in Turkey and Africa, it’s vital the EU gets its
own house in order by stepping up its humanitarian response and working
together to deliver a genuine European migration and asylum policy, with
a permanent border and coastguard capacity.”<br />
<br />
<b>Source</b>: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/18/europe-relocates-177-syrian-refugees-turkey-eu-deal <br />
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Syria Monitorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02565017886866968391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3390350408423940673.post-25451786040106589302016-05-17T17:38:00.000+02:002016-06-02T17:40:53.003+02:00Syrian refugees in Turkey 'denied access to lawyers and specialised medical care' <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="The fate of the newly returned refugees casts further doubt on the viability of the EU’s flagship refugee deal" class="lead-asset-image" data-frz-ratio="1.47" data-lazy-loaded="true" src="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2016/05/17/96085437Syrian-camp-large_trans++h6IPPfNmlzmSbL1i9yV2vIU0_2WZ3GQatZuAaHhBKmc.jpg" height="271" itemprop="image" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="400" /></td></tr>
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<span class="lead-asset-caption" itemprop="caption">The fate of the newly returned refugees casts further doubt on the viability of the EU’s flagship refugee deal</span>
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<span class="lead-asset-copyright-label">Credit:</span>
AFP/Getty Images </span></figcaption></figure></td></tr>
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<span class="m_first-letter"><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/16/turkey-visa-deal-will-increase-risk-of-terrorist-attacks-eu-repo/"><span class="m_first-letter"></span>Syrian refugees returned to Turkey </a>as part of a controversial deal with the European Union are being held without access to lawyers or specialised medical care.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="m_first-letter">A</span> group of 12 Syrians are being
held in Düziçi, a remote detention centre in southern Turkey, while
others have not been heard of since their flight arrived from Greece in
April. <br />
<br />
“You can’t imagine how bad a situation we are in right now,” a woman detained with her children told <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/16/syrians-returned-to-turkey-after-eu-deal-complain-of-treatment">the Guardian</a> newspaper by phone. “My children and I are suffering, the food is not edible.<br />
"I’m forcing my children to eat because I don’t have any money to buy anything, but they refuse because there are bugs in it.”<br />
<br />
Among the group is at least one pregnant woman. The whereabouts of
two more Syrians returned from Greece last month remains unknown.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
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<span class="m_first-letter">S</span>everal Syrians held in Düziçi
had lived in Turkey before trying to seek asylum in the EU. “We
cancelled our asylum claims in Greece to come back to our homes, not to
this prison here,” another inmate, who asked to be known by the
pseudonym of Lara, told the Guardian.<br />
Turkish officials have described the camp as a place where the
refugees “accommodated” were those who were “homeless or engaged in
begging”.<br />
On 2 December, official statistics said there were 377 Syrian
refugees at the facility, of a total of nearly 1,500 people held there
since it opened three months before.<br />
The fate of the newly returned refugees casts further doubt on the
viability of the EU’s flagship refugee deal, an agreement premised on
the idea that Turkey is a safe country of asylum for refugees fleeing
war.<br />
After less than two months, it is already on the rocks.<br />
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<span class="m_first-letter">S</span>ince the outbreak of war in neighbouring Syria, Turkey has hosted more refugees than all other countries combined.<br />
<a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/09/eu-turkey-deal-it-is-cruel-of-europe-to-close-its-borders-to-syr/">But it has also been accused of human rights abuses</a>
against those seeking safety within its borders, including shooting
Syrian refugees on its southern frontier, and beating others people in
detention centres.<br />
Turkish officials said this week that they hoped to release the
Syrians newly held in Düziçi “once their background checks are
completed.”<br />
Separately, hundreds of non-Syrians deported under the deal to a separate camp have <a href="http://www.statewatch.org/news/2016/may/ep-GUENGL-report-refugees-Turkey-deal.pdf">told MEPs</a> that they have not been given the opportunity to claim asylum.<br />
Ankara is currently at loggerheads with the European parliament over
the deal’s stipulation that Turkey must amend its anti-terrorism laws in
order for citizens to win visa-free travel to Europe, one of the
agreement’s key prizes.<br />
Addressing Turkish businessmen in Vienna late Monday, Foreign
Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Turkey would never "give in to such
impositions."<br />
In a message posted to his Twitter account on Tuesday, Donald Tusk,
the European Council president, insisted the EU would work with Turkey
if it upheld its side of the deal. “EU stands ready to fulfil its part
of EU-Turkey deal as long as Turkey agrees to play by the rules, and not
with the rules,” he wrote.<br />
<br />
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/17/syrian-refugees-in-turkey-denied-access-to-lawyers-and-specialis/ <br />
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Syria Monitorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02565017886866968391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3390350408423940673.post-62277008407606250092016-04-01T17:30:00.000+02:002016-06-02T17:30:29.451+02:00Turkey: Illegal mass returns of Syrian refugees expose fatal flaws in EU-Turkey deal <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Large-scale forced returns of refugees from Turkey to war-ravaged Syria expose the fatal flaws in a <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2016/03/eu-turkey-refugee-deal-a-historic-blow-to-rights/">refugee deal</a> signed between Turkey and the European Union earlier this month, Amnesty International revealed today.<br />
<br />
New research carried out by the organization in Turkey’s southern
border provinces suggests that Turkish authorities have been rounding up
and expelling groups of around 100 Syrian men, women and children to
Syria on a near-daily basis since mid-January. Over three days last
week, Amnesty International researchers gathered multiple testimonies of
large-scale returns from Hatay province, confirming a practice that is
an open secret in the region.<br />
<br />
All forced returns to Syria are illegal under Turkish, EU and international law.<br />
<br />
“In their desperation to seal their borders, EU leaders have wilfully
ignored the simplest of facts: Turkey is not a safe country for Syrian
refugees and is getting less safe by the day,” said John Dalhuisen,
Amnesty International’s Director for Europe and Central Asia.<br />
<br />
“The large-scale returns of Syrian refugees we have documented
highlight the fatal flaws in the EU-Turkey deal. It is a deal that can
only be implemented with the hardest of hearts and a blithe disregard
for international law.”<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<blockquote class="quote" data-scenario="quote_text">
<div class="quote__text">
<span style="font-size: large;">Far from pressuring Turkey to improve the protection it offers Syrian refugees, the EU is in fact incentivizing the opposite.</span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><footer class="quote__source" data-scenario="quote_author"><span style="font-size: large;">Amnesty International's John Dalhuisen</span></footer>
</blockquote>
The EU-Turkey deal paves the way for the immediate return to Turkey
of Syrian refugees arriving on the Greek islands, on the grounds that it
is safe country of asylum. EU officials have expressed the hope that
returns could start as of Monday 4 April.<br />
The EU’s extended courting of Turkey that preceded the deal has
already had disastrous knock-on effects on Turkey’s own policies towards
Syrian refugees.<br />
“Far from pressuring Turkey to improve the protection it offers
Syrian refugees, the EU is in fact incentivizing the opposite,” said
John Dalhuisen.<br />
“It seems highly likely that Turkey has returned several thousand
refugees to Syria in the last seven to nine weeks. If the agreement
proceeds as planned, there is a very real risk that some of those the EU
sends back to Turkey will suffer the same fate.”<br />
<strong>Children and a pregnant woman among those returned</strong><br />
One of the cases uncovered by Amnesty International is of three young
children forced back into Syria without their parents; another is of
the forced return of an eight-month pregnant woman.<br />
“The inhumanity and scale of the returns is truly shocking; Turkey should stop them immediately,” said John Dalhuisen.<br />
Many of those returned to Syria appear to be unregistered refugees,
though Amnesty International has also documented cases of registered
Syrians being returned, when apprehended without their papers on them.<br />
<strong>Syrian refugees denied registration</strong><br />
Amnesty International’s recent research also shows that the Turkish
authorities have scaled back the registration of Syrian refugees in the
southern border provinces.<br />
Registration is required to access basic services. In Gaziantep,
Amnesty International met with the son of a woman requiring emergency
surgery to save her life but who was denied the ability to register –
and therefore have the surgery. She eventually was able to register
elsewhere and receive the life-saving treatment.<br />
<blockquote class="quote" data-scenario="quote_text">
<div class="quote__text">
<span style="font-size: large;">Having witnessed the creation of Fortress Europe, we are now seeing the copy-cat construction of Fortress Turkey.</span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><footer class="quote__source" data-scenario="quote_author"><span style="font-size: large;">Amnesty International's John Dalhuisen</span></footer>
</blockquote>
According to other Syrian refugees in the border province of Hatay,
some people attempting to register have been detained and forced back
into Syria, together with refugees found without their registration
documents.<br />
Amnesty International spoke to a family of unregistered Syrian
refugees in Hatay province who have opted to remain in their apartment
rather than trying to register, for fear they will be returned to Syria.<br />
There are currently around 200,000 displaced people within 20km of
Turkey’s border. According to humanitarian aid groups as well as camp
residents, conditions in camps close to the border are abysmal, without
clean water or sanitation. A camp resident reported kidnappings for
ransom among the dangers.<br />
<strong>Tighter border restrictions</strong><br />
Increased border security and the lack of any regular means of
crossing have pushed people into the hands of smugglers, who are
demanding at least US$1,000 per person to take people into Turkey,
according to Syrian nationals Amnesty International spoke to on both
sides of the border.<br />
The increasingly restrictive border policies are a radical change
from those adopted previously by the Turkish authorities during the five
years of the Syrian crisis. Previously, Syrian residents with passports
had been able to cross at regular border gates, and those who entered
irregularly – the vast majority – were also able to register with the
Turkish authorities.<br />
“Over the last few months, Turkey has introduced visa requirements
for Syrians arriving by air, sealed its land border with Syria for all
but those in need of emergency medical care, and shot at some of those
attempting to cross it irregularly,” said John Dalhuisen.<br />
“Now Turkey is touting the creation of an undeliverable safe zone
inside Syria. It is clear where this is all heading: having witnessed
the creation of <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/eur05/001/2014/en/">Fortress Europe</a>, we are now seeing the copy-cat construction of Fortress Turkey.”<br />
<br />
<strong>TESTIMONIES</strong><br />
<em><strong>A Syrian family whose children were forcibly returned to Syria</strong></em><br />
An extended family of 24 people lived together in a single apartment
in Antakya, Hatay province. They told Amnesty International that five
members of their family were forcibly returned to Syria on or around 20
February 2016.<br />
Thirty-year-old M.Z., in Turkey since early 2015, had been able to
register. His 20-year-old brother, M.A., and their 11 year-old nephew
and two nieces, aged 10 and nine, had arrived in Turkey around two
months previously and had not been able to register because they had
been told that it was impossible, and that those who tried risked being
sent back to Syria.<br />
The two brothers were taking their nephew and nieces to the park to
play when they were stopped by police, who demanded their identification
papers. The police took all five Syrian refugees to a nearby police
station.<br />
Z.Z. – another of M.Z.’s brothers who lived with them in Antakya –
told Amnesty International that after learning of their detention, he
brought M.Z.’s registration card to the police station, but that the
police refused to release any of them.<br />
M.Z. told Amnesty International by phone from Syria that after being
detained for a few hours, all five refugees were put on a bus and driven
to the Cilvegözü / Bab al-Hawa border crossing in Hatay province.<br />
They were not alone. M.Z. said that there were a total of seven
buses, with about 30 people on each bus – mostly families – representing
up to 210 Syrian refugees. Two police cars accompanied the buses, and
M.Z. told Amnesty International that on his bus there was a Turkish
soldier armed with an assault rifle.<br />
M.Z.’s brother followed the buses to Bab al-Hawa but said he was not
permitted to speak to his relatives. When they reached the border at
about 3am, they were handed over to the Ahrar al Sham armed group. On
the Syrian side, M.Z. told a soldier that he had no money to care for
the three children. The soldier then drove them to Atma refugee camp, in
Syria’s Idlib province.<br />
M.Z. does not know what happened to the other people on the buses. He
describes conditions in the Atma camp as atrocious, with no running
water or sanitation facilities and completely inadequate food supplies.<br />
M.Z. said that the children have developed skin conditions and that
since being in Atma his nephew has developed vision problems.<br />
The five Syrians are still able to communicate with their family in
Antakya by phone. The children’s mother told Amnesty International,
“They are crying all the time; when they talk I can’t even understand
what they are saying.”<br />
Aid groups reported in December 2015 that nearly 58,000 people were
living in Atma camp. M.Z. told Amnesty International that he has tried
to return to Turkey several times over the past month.<br />
M.Z.’s family in Antakya told Amnesty International that smugglers
would charge them about US$1,000 per person to cross, but M.Z. says he
only has around 500 Syrian pounds (just over US$2).<br />
Most of the remaining members of the family, including children, are
unregistered and remain in their Antakya apartment for fear that they
too could be returned to Syria. They rely on registered members of the
family to bring supplies to the house.<br />
<em><strong>Two men whose brother and his pregnant wife were returned to Syria</strong></em><br />
The two brothers said that around 3 March 2016, they were travelling
in two cars with their brother and his wife, having crossed the
Turkey-Syria border near Yayladağı in Hatay province the same day. About
3km into Turkish territory, Turkish border guards stopped the car in
which their brother K.A. and his wife B.Q. were travelling. K.A. phoned
his two brothers in the other car to tell them what had happened.<br />
The two men explained to Amnesty International that their brother and
sister-in-law were sent back to Syria in a van to the Cilvegözü / Bab
al-Hawa border crossing in Hatay province, along with seven other vans
carrying Syrian refugees. Each van allegedly transported around 14
people, which represents around 112 Syrian refugees. The brother and his
now nine-month pregnant wife are living in Atma camp across from the
Turkish border.<br />
<em><strong>A man whose mother required emergency life-saving surgery</strong></em><br />
A Syrian man said his mother had not been permitted to register in
Gaziantep, despite urgently requiring life-saving surgery that could
only be accessed with registration.<br />
A doctor had told him that every day that passed without the surgery
would endanger his mother’s life. After two weeks of trying to register
in Gaziantep, showing numerous medical test results as proof of the
urgency of the situation, they gave up and instead convinced the
authorities to register her in Kilis, some 60km away. The mother was
subsequently able to receive the free medical care she required.<br />
<em><strong>A Syrian man in Azaz who was unlawfully pushed back from the border</strong></em><br />
The man had been part of a group of around 60 people trying to cross
irregularly to Turkey on 20 February 2016. He said that they were
apprehended by Turkish border guards and detained in a military barracks
near Reyhanlı in Hatay province.<br />
He told Amnesty International he was detained for four hours, and
that other people in the barracks (including women and children) were
detained for up to 24 hours. He said that the border guards did not
provide any food or water, nor access to toilets.</div>
Syria Monitorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02565017886866968391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3390350408423940673.post-17276473726542018572014-12-29T14:21:00.001+01:002014-12-29T14:22:21.084+01:00The Impact of Syria's Refugees on Southern Turkey <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Since Policy Focus 130 was first published in October 2013, the number
of registered Syrian refugees in Turkey has nearly doubled, from roughly
440,000 to 747,000. Although Turkey's national burden is relatively
small when compared with Syria's other neighbors—namely Lebanon and
Jordan—pressures are increasingly intense in five southern Turkish
provinces where a disproportionate number of the refugees are
concentrated. All told, and accounting for unregistered refugees, Turkey
can expect to permanently host about a million Syrian refugees.
Integrating these arrivals poses challenges at a scale not seen in
Turkey's modern history, calling for analysis of cultural, social, and
economic implications.<br />
<br />
Questions addressed in this newly revised and updated release include
whether Ankara will provide permanent residency or even citizenship to
refugees. If so, how will such a move affect the Turkish political
landscape, especially given refugees' general sympathy with the ruling
Justice and Development Party? Also at issue is whether Turkey will
maintain its remarkable economic resilience. After an initial dip in
exports with Syria following the 2011 uprising, Turkish companies have
bounced back, even increasing their trade volume with Syrian
counterparts since last fall. Finally, Turkey's southern provinces face
sensitive cultural challenges, with the influx of Sunni Arab refugees
upsetting the longstanding sectarian balance. Washington will need to
monitor these and other trends so that its cooperation with the Turkish
government, and the international community, will be focused, attuned,
and effective.<br />
<br />
<b>To read the report please <a href="http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/uploads/Documents/pubs/PolicyFocus130_Cagaptay_Revised3s.pdf" target="_blank">click</a> </b><br />
<br />
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Syria Monitorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02565017886866968391noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3390350408423940673.post-21378671318825091772014-12-26T13:56:00.000+01:002014-12-29T13:56:42.689+01:00Outlook Darkens for Syria Refugees in Turkey<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="clearfix byline-wrap">
<div class="byline">
<span>By</span><span class="name" itemprop="name"> Ayla Albayrak</span>
</div>
<time class="timestamp">
</time></div>
ISTANBUL—Turkey’s welcome to Syrian refugees is coming under
strain, as international aid dries up and Turks grow weary of the burden
to their country caused by the 1.7 million people who have spilled over
the border to escape war next door.<br />
<br />
On
a recent night here, dozens of Syrian men lined to use the only
bathroom in a commercial building that once housed offices and
workshops, but now shelters homeless Syrians, who pay $240 a month for a
bunk bed in one of its 30 rooms.<br />
<br />
With nighttime temperatures
dropping to the 30s, the building’s Turkish owner lets residents buy
portable heaters, but he limits their use to save electricity. It is a
sign to
Mohammed Darweesh,
a 31-year-old doctor from the Syrian province of Latakia, that
Turkey’s embrace was wearing thin. <br />
<br />
“One night, local volunteers knocked our door and offered
blankets. I told them our problems are too great to be solved with
blankets,” Mr. Darweesh said, adding that his money was running low and
he was unable to get a job. “Turkey has been good to Syrians, but two
million people are just too many.” <br />
Since the start of Syria’s
political upheaval in March 2011, Turkish authorities have sought to
control the dispersal of Syrian refugees across the country by giving
government aid only to people in camps it operates near the Turkish-Syrian frontier.<br />
<a name='more'></a> <br /><br />
But the duration of the war and the scope of the displaced—including
1.1 million U.N.-registered refugees and hundreds of thousands of others
Turkey’s government says the U.N. hasn’t yet counted—has overwhelmed
that strategy. Fleeing Syrians have overflowed the government’s 23 camps
and spilled into every corner of Turkey, not least its cities, which
Mr. Darweesh and others believe provide more means to survive.<br />
<br />
<br />
Donor
fatigue with Syria and competing international demands for humanitarian
aid are now making the burden of Turkey’s open-door policy untenable,
both for the refugees and their hosts. Turkey says it has spent $5
billion on Syrian refugees, while receiving only $265 million in
international support despite pleas for more.<br />
<br />
Meanwhile, the
World Food Program said this month that due to lack of funds, it was
suspending a food voucher program for Syrian refugees. Within days, the
U.N. agency managed to raise $80 million to keep the program going, at
least temporarily.<br />
<br />
“We can now continue to run the program until mid-January. But after that, we will have to again see where we’re at,” said
Jean-Yves Lequime,
the WFP’s emergency coordinator in Ankara.<br />
Turkey has
received international plaudits for its care of the refugees, providing
free health care and state scholarships for university students, in
addition to food and shelter.<br />
<br />
But in Turkey’s cities, the once
hospitable climate to Syria’s refugees has become tinged with
impatience, and sometimes hostility. While many Syrians are working as
day laborers to make ends meet, some have resorted to begging on the
streets to make do.<br />
<br />
For months Mevlut Tanrioglu watched with
growing dismay as Syrian families lingered in front of his snack shop in
Levent, Istanbul’s business district, and pleaded for money from
passersby. <br />
By the time police began in October to round up the
families this fall as part of a wider operation in Istanbul, Ankara and
other Turkish cities, the 68-year-old Mr. Tanrioglu had little sympathy
left.<br />
“Of course it’s all upsetting. They’ve lost everything.
But the more we take them in, the bigger the problems will grow.
Turkey’s door should be shut for them,” he said.<br />
<br />
As part of the
roundup, police picked up 1,300 homeless Syrians and moved them to a
camp in Gaziantep, newly built for the most vulnerable among Syria’s
refugees, said an official of the government’s Disaster and Emergency
Management Directorate, or AFAD.<br />
<br />
Rights groups report a shift in
attitudes, too. Amnesty International said last month that Turkey is
employing forces to bar an increasing number of Syrians from crossing
the frontier into Turkey.<br />
Turkish officials said there have been
no changes to the country’s refugee policy, and said that some Syrians
have been turned back at the border because they lacked sufficient
identification.<br />
Few doubt Turkey’s burden.<br />
<br />
Government-run
refugee camps, located mainly in the south, now house more than 225,000
Syrians. A 24th camp is under construction near the southern city of
Suruç to handle what the government says are an additional 190,000
people who have fled the Syrian border town of Kobani since Islamic
State and Kurdish forces began fighting there in October.<br />
<br />
“Just
as we haven't let these people go hungry for the past four years, we
won't let them go hungry in the future,” said AFAD spokesman
Dogan Eskinat,
while reiterating the government’s need for outside aid.<br />
<br />
Domestic
aid groups are being stretched to the limit, too. Sefkat-Der, a
nongovernmental organization that delivers soup and bread to the
homeless in Istanbul, says it fed a record number of Syrians on the
streets—some 50 people a night—in November and early December.<br />
<br />
The
group’s volunteers said it is common to see Syrians sleeping in parks
and in makeshift tents near the central bus station, and even on the
outdoor stage next to the famed Blue Mosque.<br />
“Turks have got used
to Syrians on the streets. Their children cling to us on the street,
begging,” said Serkan Bulut, a 22-year-old volunteer for the group. “We
want to help, but there are so many.”<br />
<br />
Source: http://www.wsj.com/articles/outlook-darkens-for-syria-refugees-in-turkey-1419639811 <br />
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Syria Monitorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02565017886866968391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3390350408423940673.post-71971671357868252342014-12-09T13:49:00.000+01:002014-12-29T13:50:18.091+01:00New funding announced by HRVP Mogherini and Commissioner Stylianides as they meet with refugees in Turkey<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
European Commission - Press release
<br />
<h3 class="title" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;">EU steps up assistance for Syrian refugees in Turkey </span></h3>
<div class="date">
Brussels, 09 December 2014</div>
<div class="date">
<br /></div>
<div class="media">
</div>
<div class="content">
<b>New funding announced by HRVP Mogherini and Commissioner Stylianides as they meet with refugees in Turkey</b><br />
<br />
With
growing numbers of refugees from Syria seeking sanctuary in Turkey, the
European Commission is stepping up its assistance with an additional
€10 million in humanitarian funding both inside Turkey and inside Syria
via cross-border assistance from Turkey. The funding was announced as EU
High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/Vice
President of the European Commission Federica Mogherini and the
Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management Christos
Stylianides visited a camp for Syrian refugees in the border town of
Kilis, south-central Turkey, and attended a distribution of EU-funded
aid for refugees.<br />
<br />
HRVP Federica Mogherini stated: "<i>Today, we are stepping up our assistance</i><i> to the people of Syria and to the Turkish communities hosting Syrian refugees. </i><i>Europe
stands firmly with Turkey and is determined to play its role to the
full to bring a lasting political solution to this regional crisis and
humanitarian tragedy</i>".<br />
<br />
"<i>Let</i><i> me express my deep
appreciation for the immense efforts by Turkey and its people, who have
shown their huge capacity for solidarity with the people of Syria in
their greatest time of need," </i>said Commissioner Stylianides. "<i>Europe stands</i><i>
firmly with Turkey. We remain fully committed to our ongoing support to
the refugee population in the country, which is why we are stepping up
our assistance</i>".<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<br />
The new humanitarian funding from the
European Commission will help refugees living outside camps with cash
assistance programmes, material assistance for newcomers and health
care.<br />
<br />
<b>BACKGROUND:</b><br />
Since the beginning of
the Syrian crisis, the European Commission has contributed €187.5million
to support refugees in Turkey.The bulk of the resources allocated early
on in the crisis have helped refugees inside camps. In 2014 the focus
has primarily been to support refugees living outside camps, in
particular new arrivals, as the large majority of the refugee population
in 2014 live outside of camps.<br />
<br />
The Commission has humanitarian
experts in Turkey who monitor the impact of the Syrian crisis. Earlier
in 2014, this presence enabled the Commission to promptly assist Turkey
when more than 200 000 Syrian refugees fleeing from Kobane crossed its
border, as well as when a new wave of Iraqi refugees fled to Turkey from
the violence in their country.<br />
<br />
Commission funding also provides
basic education to young Syrian children. EU instruments, notably the
Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance through its (IPA) 2014 annual
action programme for Turkey, is providing €9.9 million for access to
education for Syrian refugees.<br />
<br />
An additional IPA programme for
Turkey with a funding of €40 million is currently being developed, aimed
at enhancing access to services, strengthening resilience of host
communities as well as facilitating integration of refugees. It will
also be supporting direct capacity-building for the Turkish Government
in migration management. The programme will be implemented by some UN
agencies in the medium term (years 2016/2017) whereas in shorter term
(2015) EU's Instrument for Stability (IcSP) will address similar
issues with a funding of €17 million overall, and with the involvement
of the UN Development Programme and the International Organisation for
Migration.<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="reference">
IP/14/2500</div>
<div class="reference">
<br /></div>
<div class="reference">
Source: http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-14-2500_en.htm </div>
</div>
Syria Monitorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02565017886866968391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3390350408423940673.post-59381594067553691182014-11-20T14:12:00.000+01:002014-12-29T14:12:38.808+01:00UNHCR: Frequently Asked Questions Syrian Refugees in Turkey<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
UNHCR Frequently Asked Questions<br />
Syrian Refugees in Turkey<br />
October 2013<br />
<br /><b></b>
<b></b><br />
<b></b><br />
<b><br />What is the Temporary Protection regime and to whom does it apply?</b><br />
<br />The Temporary Protection (TP) regime established by the Government of Turkey (GoT) is in<br />line with international standards for dealing with sudden and large increases of numbers of<br />refugees crossing the border. Under the TP regime, Syrians are to be provided with protection and <br />assistance in Turkey, which includes unlimited stay, protection against against forcible returns <br />and access to reception arrangements where immediate needs are addressed. To date, assistance has <br />been systematically provided in the camps. For the non-camp refugees, the assistance is being <br />provided on an adhoc basis with the notable exception of access to public medical health care which <br />has been open to all Syrian nationals in Turkey.<br /><br />All Syrian refugees are covered by the TP regime, including those without identification documents. <br />The TP regime also covers Palestinians from Syria and stateless persons from Syria.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br /><b>Does the TP regime guarantee access to Turkey?</b><br /><br />Access for Syrian refugees to Turkey is managed by the Turkish authorities.<br /><br /><br />Syrian passport holders may legally access Turkey without visas and there are no restrictions to <br />entry. They may obtain legal residence permits (ikamets) anywhere in the country, with the <br />exception of the Hatay and Sirnak provinces.<br /><br /><br />The admission of Syrians without passports at official border crossings is controlled by the <br />Turkish Passport Control Police and is generally linked to the availability of places within the <br />camps, with exceptions, e.g., for those requiring emergency medical treatment.<br /><br /><br />At the border points controlled by the Gendarmerie or the Turkish Land Forces, entry of Syrians is <br />generally restricted to wounded people. Given the restrictions at the border, many Syrians without <br />valid passports seek irregular entry into Turkey, some with the assistance of smugglers. Those who <br />enter irregularly are later able to regularize their stay through registration at one of the AFAD <br />Coordination Centres in southeastern Turkey. UNHCR continues to advocate with the Government for <br />unrestricted access to territory, and also to draw the attention of authorities to the protection <br />risks that Syrians face when forced to resort to irregular entry.<br />
<br />
<br /><b>Can Palestinians ex-Syria also enter Turkey without a visa?</b><br /><br />In principle, Palestinians who seek to enter Turkey from Syria are allowed to enter the country <br />without a visa. The temporary protection regime specifically ensures that Palestinians from Syria <br />are granted the same protection envisaged for Syrian nationals. For Palestinians who arrive to <br />Turkey via a third country, practice to date indicates that, in the absence of a visa, they may be <br />returned to the third country. However, there are no reports of Palestinians<br />being returned to Syria.<br />
<br /><b></b>
<b><br />Does UNHCR Turkey register Syrians?</b><br /><br />UNHCR Turkey is not carrying out registration or refugee status determination of Syrians, as their <br />protection is ensured by the TP regime. Syrian refugees are t herefore registered by the Turkish <br />authorities.<br /><br />Syrian refugees residing in camps are registered by camp authorities, which are under the <br />responsibility of the Turkish Disaster and Emergency Management Agency (AFAD).<br /><br />The Foreigners Police (FP) in satellite cities are registering Syrians who entered Turkey legally <br />with their valid passports and providing them with residence permits (ikamets). The FP registers <br />and provides ikamets in all provinces of Turkey with the exception of Sirnak and Hatay provinces. <br />The FP are not registering and providing residence permits to Syrians who entered <br />irregularly/informally and without passports.<br /><br />For those Syrian refugees residing in urban areas and unable to obtain ikamets, registration is <br />carried out by AFAD. The registration of this caseload only began in January 2013 in Gaziantep <br />city, and has since begun in Nizip (Gaziantep province) and Sanliurfa province. In other locations, <br />such as Adana, Kahramanmaras, Kilis, and Hatay, authorities are carrying out enumeration exercises, <br />which are recording the presence of Syrian refugees, but documentation is not being issued to <br />Syrian refugees in these locations.<br />
<br /><b><br />Where can Syrian refugees register?</b><br /><br /><u><i>Registration in camps</i></u><br /><br />In each of the 21 refugee camps, the management of the camp is responsible for carrying out the <br />registration of the refugees prior to their placement in the camp. Registration facilities are <br />located within each camp. Upon registration, camp residents receive registration cards from the <br />camp authorities which can be used as identification documents, and which secure access to a number <br />of services, including medical care. Despite recent openings of new camps, the demand for camps has <br />surpassed the available spaces in the camps. Whether or not a Syrian refugee is placed and <br />registered in a camp, as well as which camp, is at the discretion of the Government of Turkey. <br />The general policy of AFAD is that there will be an orderly admission of Syrians to <br />Turkey for camp placement, and thus, the authorities have been prioritizing the admission and <br />placement of vulnerable IDPs who have been waiting on the Syrian side of the border. The <br />authorities have also identified vulnerable Syrian families living in urban areas for transfer to <br />the newly opened camps.<br /><br />Syrians who are already in Turkey and wish to be placed in a camp can approach the AFAD Provincial offices and Governorate Offices to inquire about this possibility.<br /><br /><u><i>Registration outside of camps</i></u><br /><br />Syrians who officially entered Turkey with passports are able to receive a residence permit by <br />approaching the Foreigner’s Department of the Ministry of Interior. While the residence fee is <br />waived for Syrians, they are required to pay an administrative fee for the residence permit <br />booklet. For all Syrians with a passport, the Government provides a one-year residence<br /><br />permit and waves the residency fee. Foreigner’s Departments can be found in each city and the <br />easiest way to locate them is to approach the nearest police station which can guide an applicant <br />to the right department.<br /><br />Refugees who entered Turkey through an informal border crossing and without a passport are <br />currently able to register in Government operated Coordination Centres located in Gaziantep and <br />Nizip, in Gaziantep province, as well as in the coordination center in Sanliurfa, and its branches, <br />which are currently operating in Akcakale, Birecik, Bozova, Siverek, Suric, and Viransehir <br />inSanliurfa province. The coordination centers are managed jointly by the Disaster and Emergency <br />Management Presidency (AFAD) and governorate authorities.<br /><br />In these centres and upon registration, Syrians are issued ID cards which facilitate access to <br />medical assistance and other assistance provided through the sub-governorates. UNHCR is supporting the government to register the non-camp population in the southeast through the procurement of mobile registration units which will be deployed over the fall 2013 (September to December 2013). In other provinces in the southeast, the local authorities are carrying out enumeration exercises to identity where Syrians are living and, in some cases, to provide them with assistance.<br /><br />It should additionally be noted that a new circular on the registration of urban refugees was sent <br />by the Ministry of Interior on 17 September to Provincial Securit y Directorates in 20 provinces, <br />including 10 provinces where the camps are located, as well as Istanbul, Ankara, Konya, Mersin, <br />Izmir, Bursa, Balikesir, Eskisehir, Kayseri, and Antalya. The circular informs that further <br />coordination centres will be established in these 20 provinces, and that their staffing of <br />Foreigners Police will be reinforced to ensure that the registration and fingerprinting of the <br />urban Syrians can be carried out. UNHCR is following up with the authorities regarding their <br />intentions to begin implementing the plans set forth in this circular.<br /><br /><u><i>Coordination centre contact information</i></u><br /><br />Gaziantep Coordination Centre:<br />Degirmicem Mahallesi<br />Ozgurluk Cad. Erseter Apt n. 38/A<br />Sehitkamil, Gaziantep<br />Hotline: 444 5027<br /><br />Urfa Coordination Centre:<br />Veysel Karani Mahallesi 462 Sokak No:17 Sanliurfa Merkez<br />Landline (not hotline): 0414 313 7290 & 0414 314 0852<br /><br /><br />
<b>What support is available to Syrian refugees with medical needs?</b><br /><br />Free access to medical treatment is facilitated for all Syrian refugees residing in camps. <br />Furthermore, on 18 January 2013, AFAD issued circular 2013/1 informing that Syrian nationals who <br />are not residing in camps can approach health centers or hospitals and receive medical attention free of charge. To receive medical care, non-camp refugees must approach the health centers or hospitals which are located in one of the 10 provinces that are hosting the Syrian refugee camps. These currently include: Adana, Adiyaman, Gaziantep, Hatay, Kahramanmaras, Kilis, Malatya, Mardin, Osmaniye, and Sanliurfa. The cost of the medical treatment, which includes preventive or primary healthcare, is borne by AFAD. If a Syrian has not yet been registered by AFAD, they can still approach the State Hospitals in these 10 provinces for medical treatment, at which point in time, a designated person at the Hospital will conduct a preliminary registration so that health services can be provided.<br /><br />AFAD issued an additional circular on 9 September instructing that Syrians nationals be granted <br />access to health services in all 81 provinces in Turkey. It is envisaged that <br />registration will be undertaken by the medical centres and the Foreigners Police staff in all 81 <br />provinces of Turkey. This circular expands, in principle, the previous health circular, and also <br />appears to be a reflection of efforts to scale up registration of urban Syrians throughout the <br />country. UNHCR is following up with the authorities to receive clarification on how and when the <br />circular will begin to be implemented.<br /><br />In select pharmacies throughout Gaziantep and Urfa provinces, AFAD, in coordination with the <br />Chamber of Pharmacists, have arranged to cover 80% of prescription costs for medication required by Syrian refugees. Costs for the medication is borne by the respective AFAD Provincial Directorate.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Can Syrian children access education in Turkey?</b><br /><br />According to Turkish national law, all children in Turkey, including foreigners, have the right to <br />primary and secondary school education. Refugees of school age residing in camps throughout <br />southeast Turkey have access to camp schools which follow the Syrian educational <br />curriculum and provide instruction in the Arabic language. At the end of the education year the <br />children are issued a document indicating their attendance and successful completion of the school <br />year in the camp.<br /><br />Outside of the refugee camps, Syrians of school age who have been issued residence permits can <br />enroll in public schools. Those who are living outside of camps and without residence permits can <br />attend schools as guests, without formal enrolment, or attend informal schools run by volunteer <br />Syrian teachers which in some areas are supported by the local authorities or NGOs.<br /><br /><br />
<b>What support mechanisms are available for unaccompanied Syrian refugee children?</b><br /><br />Protection for all children, regardless of nationality, is ensured by the legal framework of <br />Turkey's Child Protection Law No. 5395. Thus, in principle, the national legal system has the <br />capacity to address the protection needs of Syrian children, including unaccompanied minors (UAMs). <br />
<br />Unaccompanied and separated refugee children who are in need of protection can be hosted in state <br />institutions and be provided with assistance on par with that received by Turkish citizens. Thus, <br />within the existing framework, contingent upon the Syrian child’s registration with the <br />authorities, and availability of resources and the capacity of the state, primary education, <br />including language training, as well as medical care, are provided.<br /><br />Any Syrian UAMs identified by UNHCR or the local authorities were, until recently, referred <br />immediately to the Turkish Child Protection Agency for placement in existing child <br />protection centres. However, given the increasing number of arrivals, which has had an impact on <br />the capacity of state institutions to continue to meet the growing needs of identified <br />unaccompanied children, the Ministry of Family and Social Policy is seeking alternative <br />arrangements to address the needs of these children under the legal framework.<br /><br />UNHCR continues to provide guidance to the authorities on identification of the most <br />suitable care arrangement that serving the specific circumstances of the child. Syrian UAMs should <br />be referred to UNHCR, which will follow up with the authorities on the appropriate response and <br />support.<br /><br /><br /><b>What recourse to assistance do Syrian refugees have if they are victims of a crime in<br />Turkey?</b><br /><br />In the context of the temporary protection regime, all Syrian refugees may avail themselves of the <br />protection of the Government of Turkey. In practice this means t hat they may approach the <br />authorities, including the police, and report and seek assistance for any crime that they may <br />experience while in Turkey. It should be noted that while the absence of registration with the <br />authorities would not prevent any Syrian from approaching a police station and seeking assistance, <br />registration is the only way to ensure full access to protection and assistance offered by Turkey.<br /><br /><br />
<b>What is the role of UNHCR Turkey in ensuring the protection of Syrian refugees?</b><br /><br />UNHCR has been requested by the authorities to support the temporary protection regime through the <br />provision of technical advice, voluntary repatriation monitoring and related activities, and to be <br />present in all provinces where Syrian refugees are hosted.<br /><br />In southeast Turkey, UNHCR has a presence in Gaziantep, Sanliurfa and Hatay. UNHCR Staff members visit refugee camps on a daily basis, speaking with appropriate camp management, AFAD, Kizilay, registration officials, managers and staff of various Ministries’ technical units. Whenever <br />possible, and with the consent of all parties concerned, UNHCR visits the residential areas of the <br />refugee camps. During the visits, UNHCR seeks to gain an understanding for the challenges and <br />achievements of the situation of Syrian refugees. UNHCR also documents and disseminates good <br />practices observed in the camps in order to advance protection standards and to find practical <br />solutions.<br />
<br /><br /><b>What assistance does UNHCR Turkey provide?</b><br /><br />UNHCR provides policy and technical advice to the Government of Turkey, including in the areas of protection such as registration, access to territory, documentation and legal counseling <br />and management of urban refugee caseloads. UNHCR Turkey seeks to assist the camp authorities in <br />finding practical solutions to issues coming up in the camps.<br /><br />In relation to material assistance, UNHCR Turkey has and will continue to provide non-food items, <br />such as tents, blankets, tarpaulins, kitchen sets and kitchen equipment. Most recently UNHCR has <br />supported the Turkish authorities to expand its registration activities for the non-camp caseload with the procurement of mobile registration units, which will be deployed to parts of the country where Syrian refugees are residing, has procured wheelchairs for disabled refugees, and has supported a number of vocational training centres.<br />
<br /><b><br />Does UNHCR Turkey resettle Syrian refugees?</b><br /><br />With the Government of Turkey holding the lead role in responding to the international protection <br />needs of Syrian nationals through the implementation of the TP regime, UNHCR Turkey does not carry out registration, refugee status determination, or resettlement activities for Syrian refugees.<br /><br />Certain governments have informed UNHCR of their interest in resettling Syrians from the region. <br />However, these governments have not yet confirmed any resettlement programs for Syrian refugees in Turkey. All Syrian refugees in Turkey continue to be covered by the Temporary Protection regime and should register with the authorities.<br /><br />
Currently there are no large scale resettlement programs available for Syrian refugees.<br />
<br />
<b><br />Are registered Syrian refugees and asylum seekers free to move within Turkey?</b><br /><br />Camp managers grant Syrian refugees temporary leaves from the camps during daylight hours on a <br />regular basis. For Syrian refugees living outside of the camps, a specific permission to <br />go to another city/province is not required.<br />
<br /><b><br />Can UNHCR Turkey assist refugees with family reunification procedures?</b><br /><br />Anyone who wishes to lodge an application for family reunification should be in direct contact <br />with the relevant embassy. According to the laws of most countries, family reunification procedures <br />require that the family member in the third country approaches the immigration authorities there <br />first, in order to initiate the process. Most countries only accept family reunification requests <br />of nuclear family members (spouses and children below the age of 18).<br /><br />While UNHCR can assist with providing information, the most efficient way for a person with a <br />nuclear family member in another country is for this person to approach the relevant embassy.<br /><br />For exceptionally vulnerable cases brought to UNHCR Turkey’s attention, such as, for example, <br />unaccompanied children who may have parents residing in a third country, UNHCR Turkey has used its good offices to facilitate a speedy family reunification by liaising with relevant embassies, and <br />has ensured appropriate care arrangements while the children are in Turkey.<br />
<br /><br /><b>I have an urgent protection problem and need the assistance of UNHCR Turkey.</b><br /><br />Within the context of the temporary protection regime, the Government of Turkey is responsible for <br />ensuring the protection of all Syrian refugees. UNHCR can be contacted to provide counseling on the <br />temporary protection regime.<br /><br />
<br />
The hotline numbers for UNHCR Turkey<br />(+90312) 405 80 66<br />
(+90312) 405 81 27<br /><br />Queries can also be sent by e-mail to TURAN@unhcr.org.<br /><br /><br />UNHCR Turkey<br />October 2013<br /></div>
Syria Monitorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02565017886866968391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3390350408423940673.post-88518860775515242702014-11-20T13:34:00.000+01:002014-12-29T13:46:23.716+01:00Turkey: Border abuses and destitution aggravating plight of Syria refugees<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The international community’s failure to deal with the growing number
of Syrian refugees fleeing into Turkey has led to a crisis of
unprecedented proportions with refugees facing push-backs and live fire
at the border and hundreds of thousands living in destitution, said
Amnesty International in a new report published today.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="A Kurdish refugee mother and son from the town of Kobani in Syria walk beside their tent in a camp in the southeastern town of Suruc in Turkey." class="imagecache imagecache-news-highlight" src="http://www.amnesty.org/sites/impact.amnesty.org/files/imagecache/news-highlight/202455_Syrian_Kurds_Battle_IS_To_Retain_Control_Of_Kobani.jpg" height="200" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="A Kurdish refugee mother and son from the town of Kobani in Syria walk beside their tent in a camp in the southeastern town of Suruc in Turkey." width="400" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div class="attribution">
A Kurdish refugee mother and son from the town of Kobani in Syria
walk beside their tent in a camp in the southeastern town of Suruc in
Turkey. © 2014 Getty Images</div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/EUR44/017/2014/en"><i>Struggling to Survive: Refugees from Syria in Turkey</i></a> documents
serious human rights risks faced by the 1.6 million people who have
sought refuge in the country over the last three and a half years. It
also highlights the deplorable reluctance of the international community
to take meaningful financial responsibility for the refugee crisis.<br />
<br />
“Turkey
is clearly struggling to meet even the most basic needs of hundreds of
thousands Syrian refugees. The result is that many of those who have
made it across the border have been abandoned to a life of destitution.
The humanitarian assistance offered by the international community has
been pitifully low, but Turkey also needs to do more to request and
facilitate it,” said <a href="https://twitter.com/andrewegardner">Andrew Gardner, Amnesty International’s Researcher on Turkey</a>.<br />
<br />
“While
Turkey has officially opened its border crossings to Syrian refugees,
the reality for many of those trying to escape the ravages of war is a
different story. Many are pushed back into the war zone with some even
facing live fire.”<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
Turkey is host to half of the
3.2million women, men and children who have fled violence, persecution
and other human rights violations in Syria. So far Turkey says it has
spent $4billion on the refugee crisis. Meanwhile up until the end of
October 2014, only 28 per cent of the $497million earmarked for Turkey
in the UN’s 2014 regional funding appeal for Syrians has been committed
by international donors.<br />
<br />
Turkey, along with the other neighbouring countries– Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt – host 97 per cent of Syria’s refugees.<br />
<br />
“Turkey
has shouldered a significant part of the financial burden on its own.
The reluctance of wealthy countries to take greater financial
responsibility for the refugee crisis as a whole and the paltry offers
of resettlement are deplorable,” said Andrew Gardner<br />
<br />
<b>Shot at the border </b><br />
While
Turkey maintains an open-border policy for Syrian refugees at official
crossing points, there are only two fully open points along a 900km
stretch of the border. Even at these, those without passports are
routinely turned away unless they have urgent medical or humanitarian
needs.<br />
<br />
Added to this, the border crossings are perilously
far for the majority of refugees to travel. Many have no option but
resort to difficult and often dangerous irregular crossing points in
conflict zones – often relying on smugglers. Here they are often met
with force.<br />
<br />
Amnesty International has recorded that at
least 17 people have been killed by border guards using live ammunition
at unofficial crossing points between December 2013 and August 2014.
Many have been beaten or otherwise ill-treated and pushed back to war
torn Syria.<br />
<br />
Ali Özdemir, aged 14, was shot in the head on
the night of 18 to 19 May 2014 when approaching the Turkish border. His
father told Amnesty International that Ali was with nine other
refugees. About 10 metres before the Turkish border, they heard people
speaking Turkish. Ali was afraid. Just as he decided to turn back from
the border, he was shot in the side of the head. There was no verbal
warning and there were no warning shots in the air. Ali was blinded in
both eyes.<br />
<br />
“To shoot at people who are fleeing conflict
and are desperately seeking safe haven is despicable. This is a clear
violation of international law which must not be left unpunished,” said
Andrew Gardner.<br />
<br />
“The most basic obligation of states is
to open their doors to refugees fleeing persecution or war. The Turkish
authorities must take comprehensive measures to ensure maximum safety
and access for refugees fleeing the conflict in Syria.”<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Inside the border </b><br />
Out
of the 1.6 million Syrian refugees in Turkey only 220,000 are living in
the 22 well-resourced camps which are currently operating at full
capacity. More than 1.3million refugees are left to fend for themselves.
According to Turkish government sources, only 15 per cent of Syrian
refugees outside official camps receive assistance from humanitarian
agencies and organizations.<br />
<br />
The need to provide basic
food and shelter means that families resort to desperate measures to try
and make ends meet – even putting their children to work.<br />
<br />
Ten-year
old “Ibrahim” and his family fled Aleppo two years ago and moved to the
Turkish border town of Kilis, where they live in a cement bunker. To
survive, father and son collect plastic from garbage bins, earning 1 TL
(50 cents) for each ½ kg of plastic. Young Ibrahim told Amnesty
International that he wakes up each day at 6 am and finishes work at
around 4 pm. On some days he has time to learn reading and writing from
the local Imam. None of the other nine children in the family goes to
school.<br />
<br />
“The reality that most Syrian refugees face once
they have escaped the ravages of war is grim and hopeless. They are
abandoned by the international community. The world’s wealthiest nations
are dragging their feet when it comes to offering financial support and
resettlement,” said Andrew Gardner.<br />
<br />
“Turkey only
clarified the legal status, rights and entitlements of Syrian refugees
in October, when Parliament adopted a Temporary Protection Directive.
This directive must be fully implemented and clearly communicated to
both Syrian refugees and public officials.” </div>
Syria Monitorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02565017886866968391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3390350408423940673.post-37926505505199836562014-10-09T13:44:00.000+02:002014-12-29T13:45:35.469+01:00More funds needed for million Syrian refugees in Turkey: UNHCR<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span id="articleText"><span class="focusParagraph"></span></span><br />
LONDON (Thomson
Reuters Foundation) - More than a million Syrian refugees in Turkey may
go without food, medicine and shelter unless there is an increase in
international funding, the U.N. refugee agency said on Wednesday.<br />
<br />
<span id="midArticle_1"></span> Turkey was already struggling
to cope with the refugees before the attack on the border town of Kobani
began, and the inflow has now far exceeded the international support
Turkey has received, a UNHCR (UN High Commissioner for Refugees)
spokeswoman said.<br />
<br />
<span id="midArticle_2"></span>More than 180,000
residents of Kobani, a Syrian Kurdish town, have fled to Turkey as
fighters of the militant Sunni group Islamic State closed in over the
past three weeks.<br />
<br />
<span id="midArticle_3"></span>Carol Batchelor, the UNHCR representative in Turkey, said there was a global responsibility to look after the refugees.<br />
<br />
<span id="midArticle_4"></span>"The
basic needs of the Syrian refugees vastly outweigh the support and
funding from the international community," Batchelor told Thomson
Reuters Foundation.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<span id="midArticle_5"></span>The majority of
the 1.5 million Syrian refugees in Turkey live outside refugee camps,
and Batchelor said this was one of the biggest challenges facing the
country.<br />
<br />
<span id="midArticle_6"></span>"While there are 22
refugee camps hosting 220,000 people across Turkey, this means more than
a million Syrians are in temporary shelters like mosques, schools and
parks," Batchelor said in a telephone interview from Ankara.<br />
<br />
<span id="midArticle_7"></span>"These are the people who need urgent help, but the longer the conflict goes on, the worse their situation will become."<br />
<br />
<b><span id="midArticle_8"></span></b><b><span id="midArticle_9"></span></b><b>TURKEY FUNDING SHORTAGE </b><br />
<br />
<span id="midArticle_10"></span>As
of September, Turkey had received only 25 percent of the funding it
requested as part of the 2014 Syria Regional Refugee Response Plan
(RRP6), Batchelor said.<br />
<br />
<span id="midArticle_11"></span>RRP6,
coordinated by the United Nations, brought together more than 155 donors
to help Syrian refugees and the local communities hosting them in
Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq.<br />
<span id="midArticle_12"></span>Batchelor
said that while $3.5 billion had been spent on the Syria crisis in the
last 3-1/2 years, less than $300 million of international funding had
been allocated to Turkey.<br />
<br />
<span id="midArticle_13"></span>Extra
funding is needed not only for food, medicine and shelter, but also to
provide basic education to child refugees, who account for more than
half the Syrian refugees in Turkey, Batchelor said.<br />
<span id="midArticle_14"></span>The
UNHCR has been working closely with the Turkish authorities to help the
refugees get shelter, hospital care and translation services, but
Batchelor said the burden of looking after Syrian refugees should not
fall on Turkey alone.<br />
<br />
<span id="midArticle_15"></span>"Turkish
people have been very welcoming and supportive, and international
solidarity must be equally forthcoming to ensure this unprecedented
number of refugees is looked after."<br />
<span id="midArticle_0"></span>The
UNHCR protects and supports refugees at the request of a government or
the United Nations itself and assists in their voluntary repatriation,
local integration or resettlement to a third country.<br />
<br />
<span id="midArticle_1"></span>(The story corrects figure in ninth paragraph to 25 percent.)<br />
<br />
<span id="midArticle_2"></span><span id="midArticle_3"></span> (Reporting By Kieran Guilbert; editing by Tim Pearce)<br />
<br />
Source: <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/09/us-foundation-syria-turkey-refugees-idUSKCN0HX1YC20141009" target="_blank">Reuters </a></div>
Syria Monitorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02565017886866968391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3390350408423940673.post-23591619355327513012014-06-21T16:03:00.002+02:002014-06-21T16:03:41.216+02:00Syrian refugees in Turkey exceed 1 million mark<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="clear: left; float: left; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;">
The number of
Syrians in neighbouring Turkey has surpassed 1 million, the Turkish
deputy prime minister has said.</div>
<div style="clear: left; float: left; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<a href="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2014/6/19/1403171059466/Syrian-refugees-in-Sanliu-011.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img alt="Syrian refugees in Sanliurfa." border="0" data-pin-description="Newly arrived Syrian refugees cross the southern border gate of Akcakale in Sanliurfa. Photograph: Ozan Kose/AFP/Getty Images" height="192" itemprop="contentUrl representativeOfPage" src="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2014/6/19/1403171059466/Syrian-refugees-in-Sanliu-011.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
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<br />
</div>
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</div>
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<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
There are more than
20 refugee camps in Turkey near the roughly 500-mile border with
Syria housing more than 220,000 people. But the bulk of people who
have crossed the border are living in Turkish cities, mostly in the
provinces of Hatay, Gaziantep and Sanliurfa. They have taken
advantage of the "open border" policy maintained by Turkey,
a staunch opponent of the regime in Damascus, towards Syrian
refugees.</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The Turkish deputy
prime minister, Besir Atalay, told a news conference on Thursday that
the number of Syrians in Turkey had reached 1.05 million since the
uprising against Bashar al-Assad began more than three years ago. It
began with largely peaceful protests but has become increasingly
bloody, with a number of jihadist groups joining the fight to depose
Assad and no end to the civil war in sight. Activists put the number
of people killed at more than 160,000.</div>
<a name='more'></a><br />
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The first Syrian
refugees crossed into Turkey in April 2011, prompting the Turkish
government to set up an emergency tent camp for them in southern
Hatay province. In 2012, it set up six container camps, including one
in Kilis, which were meant to offer a better standard of shelter to
incoming refugees. But Turkey has struggled to cope with the sheer
numbers entering the country and conditions in other camps are much
harsher.</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
On 1 June, the UN
refugee agency put the number of Syrians in Turkey at 760,000.
According to the UN high commissioner for refugees, more than 2.8
million people have fled Syria. There are also more than a million
Syrian refugees in Lebanon, making up a quarter of the tiny country's
population, and 600,000 in Jordan. Iraq (225,000) and Egypt (135,000)
have also taken in significant numbers.</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
As well as those who
have fled the country, there are about 6.5 million internally
displaced people within Syria and more than 9 million in Syria are
believed to be in need of humanitarian assistance.</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/19/syrian-refugees-turkey-exceed-million" target="_blank">http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/19/syrian-refugees-turkey-exceed-million</a></div>
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Syria Monitorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02565017886866968391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3390350408423940673.post-2939315020568572272014-06-20T16:47:00.000+02:002014-06-21T16:48:22.918+02:00How Europe is failing Syria's refugees<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="group">
<div class="longText">
The statistics are sobering: In just over three years of violent
conflict, nine million Syrians have been forced to flee their homes.
Around two thirds remain within the fractured state, while somewhere
between two and a half to three million are eking out an existence in
neighboring countries. Fewer than 100,000 have found safety in Europe.<br />
<br />
The figure is glaringly at odds with EU rhetoric on human rights and its
advocated approach to the refugee crisis. A Commission document
published last month urged countries neighboring Syria to keep their
borders open, "in line with international humanitarian law principles
for the passage of all civilians without distinction."<br />
Yet its own controlled and patrolled borders are virtually impenetrable.
That those kept at bay are fleeing the horrors of a war triggered by
the pursuit of the very democratic values supposedly upheld within the
bloc’s bounds, reads like a bitter irony.<br />
<br />
But Sherif Elsayed-Ali, Head of Refugee and Migrants’ Rights at Amnesty
International, is not surprised by the bloc’s iron gates policy towards
Syria’s displaced. "We have seen a lot of what the EU is doing to keep
people from reaching Europe," he told DW. "They are very good at
physically closing off their borders and preventing people from leaving
the country they are in."<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<br />
<strong>Boats not fit for sea</strong><br />
<strong>
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<img alt="A boat of refugees in the water " border="0" height="358" src="http://www.dw.de/image/0,,17016576_404,00.jpg" title="The sea crossing is perilous and offers no guarantee of arriving on European soil" width="640" />
</a>
<br />
The sea crossing is perilous and offers no guarantee of arriving on European soil<br />
</div>
</strong><strong></strong><br />
In a troublingly Kafkaesque system, anyone wishing to apply for asylum
within the union must first reach EU soil. From Syria, the main routes
to the mighty fortress take refugees through Turkey to the land borders
with Greece or Bulgaria, or see them pay through the nose to board
overcrowded and all too often unsafe boats from Libya and Egypt to
Italy.<br />
<br />
Neither option comes with a guarantee. On the contrary. Elsayed-Ali says
Amnesty International has recorded increased patrols, equipment and
personnel along Bulgaria’s outer border, as well as Greek coast guards
who routinely intercept boats from Turkey and turn them away.<br />
<br />
"Over the past year and a half, we have documented a lot of cases of
people who told us they were pushed back to the Turkish side in boats
with holes in them, increasing the danger of drowning."<br />
The only positive, he says, is the recent advent of operation Mare
Nostrum, in which the Italian navy, coast guard and private vessels
intercept and rescue boats laden with refugees. This past weekend alone
as many as 3,000 people, largely Syrians, were picked up and taken to
safety.<br />
<br />
<div class="picBox full
">
<a class="overlayLink init" href="http://www.dw.de/how-europe-is-failing-syrias-refugees/a-17676844#" rel="nofollow" style="cursor: pointer;">
<img alt="Syrische Asylanträge in Europa April bis März 2014 Englisch" border="0" height="360" src="http://www.dw.de/image/0,,17677297_401,00.png" width="640" />
</a>
</div>
<strong> </strong><br />
<strong>Facing up to reality</strong><br />
But even if they do get lucky - and hundreds don’t - they risk their
lives trying to reach a region of the world where, to all intents and
purposes, they are not welcome. As if three years of profound reticence
were not message enough, EU voters drove it home with a vengeance when
they flaunted their anti-immigration sentiment at the polls in May.<br />
<br />
Add to that concerns over terrorism, says Myriam Benraad, Middle East
expert with the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), and the
prospect of the EU as a safe house for refugees becomes even more
remote.<br />
<br />
"A lot of EU member states are afraid of welcoming possible elements of
the rebellion and all that it would entail in terms of security and
politicization," she said.<br />
<br />
Yet for all that, the refugee problem is not going to go away, and as
Syria’s neighbors struggle to accommodate them, the pressure will mount
on the EU to step up to the plate. Andreas Kamm, Secretary General of
the Danish Refugee Council, says EU politicians have to grow wise to the
realities of the situation and tackle it before it gets any worse.<br />
<br />
"They have this idea that nine million Syrians want to come to Europe,
but that is not the situation," he said, adding that most just
desperately want to go home. "But if the conflict is not solved, they’re
going to need an alternative, and we are going to have to come up with
some solutions."<br />
<br />
<strong>Border protection vs. human protection</strong><br />
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">
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<img alt="A refugee child" border="0" height="191" src="http://www.dw.de/image/0,,17477422_404,00.jpg" title="A growing number of Syrians are born as refugees" width="340" />
</a>
A growing number of Syrians are born as refugees<br />
</div>
<br />
The big question seems to be how the EU can make border
protection and refugee protection mutually inclusive. Kamm sees the
answer in the introduction of a wide-reaching resettlement program for
the most vulnerable, which would not, he says, take more than a matter
of minutes to put in place if the political will were behind it.<br />
<br />
But in the immediate absence thereof, he is hoping to see more countries
take their cue from Germany, which a foreign ministry spokesperson told
DW has accepted almost 40,000 asylum applications from Syrians since
2011. By contrast the UK has welcomed less than 2,000. And France, fewer
still.<br />
"In my view Germany is trying to demonstrate responsibility," Kamm said.
"And if other countries did the same, it would be a big help and would
send a strong signal to the refugees."<br />
<strong> </strong><br />
<strong>Too little too late</strong><br />
Benraad, however, says it is too late for signals. When the
revolutionary spirit caught fire in the Middle East in 2011, there were
great expectations of Europe, not only because of historical ties, but
because the countries in it embodied universal values of human rights
and democracy.<br />
<div class="picBox medium
">
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<img alt="Syrien Flüchtlinge" border="0" height="191" src="http://www.dw.de/image/0,,17432066_404,00.jpg" title="Many Syrians feel that Europe has left them alone in their hour of need" width="340" />
</a>
<br />
Many Syrians feel that Europe has left them alone in their hour of need<br />
</div>
Three years into a war that has killed as many as 160,000, and
driven millions from their homes and their lives, the picture is very
different.<br />
<br />
Although she stops short of speaking in terms of an EU-MENA divorce,
Benraad says there is a great sense of disappointment across the region,
and that hopes have been dashed severely enough to put Europe out of
the collective mindset, both for the present and the near future.<br />
<br />
"I don't believe there is a single serious discussion going on between
member states with regard to Syria," she said. "So I don’t think there
are many expectations for greater EU involvement in helping find a
solution or compromise."<br />
<br />
Tamsin Walker
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.dw.de/how-europe-is-failing-syrias-refugees/a-17676844" target="_blank">http://www.dw.de/how-europe-is-failing-syrias-refugees/a-17676844 </a><br />
</div>
</div>
</div>
Syria Monitorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02565017886866968391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3390350408423940673.post-7692755696319702942014-06-20T16:23:00.000+02:002014-06-21T16:24:40.131+02:00Syrians struggling to begin new lives in Istanbul<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<em>By Anna Shea, Legal Adviser on Refugee and Migrant Rights at Amnesty International.</em><br />
<br />
What struck me most when I met Zeinah (not her real name), a
29-year-old Syrian refugee in Turkey, were her warm personality and
marvelous smile. But her past and present experiences give her precious
little to smile about.<br />
<br />
Zeinah arrived in Turkey four months ago, having fled her native Syria.<br />
<br />
Like other Syrians I met in Istanbul, Zeinah had experienced horrors
in her country of origin, and was desperate to start a new life. A
teacher by profession, she was jailed by the Bashar al-Assad regime for
allegedly providing assistance to opposition groups. She said she was
raped and beaten multiple times over the several months she spent in
prison and was eventually released due to lack of evidence.<br />
<br />
<span id="more-14065"></span><br />
The abuse she suffered in jail has left her with injuries to her
spine – and serious psychological trauma – which remain untreated.<br />
<a name='more'></a> <br /><br />
Although Syrians in Turkey are entitled to visit hospitals free of
charge, this right is not always implemented in practice. Zeinah was
able to get an MRI scan and a diagnosis at a local hospital, but she
doesn’t have enough money to pay for the medicines she needs.
Furthermore, the abuse she experienced urgently requires that she obtain
psychological and other support, which she is not receiving in
Istanbul.<br />
<br />
Zeinah’s story is not unique. Like her, hundreds of thousands of
Syrian refugees are struggling to survive in Turkey and in other
countries.<br />
<br />
When we spoke in Istanbul last week she had just been evicted from
her fourth home since arriving in the city. She said she had already
paid her rent, but the owner of the building told her she had to leave
immediately – no reason was given.<br />
<br />
There were five women living in a two-bedroom apartment. Zeinah
shared her 3m by 2m room with two others. Her rent consumed $250 of the
$350 she earned each month making bags.<br />
<br />
But now she was being denied capriciously even these cramped and
overpriced lodgings. Because she was smuggled into Turkey, she had
nowhere to turn when she was evicted. Zeinah has no passport and is not
registered with the Turkish authorities. Non-governmental organizations I
spoke with told me that for people without documentation in Turkey,
complaining to the police can lead to detention.<br />
<br />
While she was speaking with me Zeinah kept apologizing, saying she
was afraid that her story would give me nightmares. But I felt that it
was me who should apologize, on behalf of Canada – my home country – and
other wealthy nations of the world who remain shamefully inactive in
resettling refugees from Syria.<br />
<br />
Meanwhile this crisis, which aid
organizations are calling the worst humanitarian disaster in recent
history, worsens daily.<br />
<br />
Remarkably, as we said goodbye she told me “I am still hopeful”. The
courage and resilience of people like Zeinah demand not only our
admiration; they demand action.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://livewire.amnesty.org/2014/06/20/syrians-struggling-to-begin-new-lives-in-istanbul/" target="_blank">http://livewire.amnesty.org/2014/06/20/syrians-struggling-to-begin-new-lives-in-istanbul/ </a></div>
Syria Monitorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02565017886866968391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3390350408423940673.post-40836966640584664472014-06-17T16:19:00.000+02:002014-06-21T16:19:57.803+02:00UNHCR Turkey Syrian Refugee Daily Sitrep<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
● On 16 June 2014, AFAD - the Disaster and Emergency Management Agency of Government of Turkey - announced that the total number of Syrians registered and assisted in 22 camps located in 10 provinces was 219,209. AFAD reported that during the period of 15-16 June 2014, a total of 752 Syrians were admitted and registered in the camps and 294 Syrians voluntarily returned to Syria.<br />
<br />● The registration of non-camp Syrians in the 10 provinces in the southeast is ongoing. According to official numbers, around 560,000 non-camp Syrians have been registered and/or enumerated in the 10 southeastern provinces. Of this total about 52% are registered within the police registration system with integrated fingerprints, 42% were enumerated or registered by AFAD coordination centers before police took over the registration process. About 6% in the southeast including Mersin have ikamets (residence permits).<br />
<br />● In Karkamis, camp officials informed UNHCR that due to heavy rains during last week, 6 out of 7 manholes in the camp were overloaded and, while they were being repaired, a water pipe was damaged and caused a temporary water cut. The water supply has now been restored to the camp.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />● In Adana, camp officials also informed UNHCR that they had fixed a recent water problem. Reportedly, due to increases in the local population in the nearby villages, there was a shortage of water in the area in general. However a new pump has been installed and the issue has been fixed, with the camp now receiving water regularly.<br />
<br />● On the way to Nusaybin camp a UNHCR team met with a group of Syrians (about 30-35 people) waiting in an area on the side of the road who clamed that they were not admitted to the camp. While some of them stated they are new arrivals, some were also former camp residents who had left the camp with permission but were not readmitted to the camp because they did not return on time. The UNHCR team brought their situation to the attention of the camp officials and it was reported later that the entire group was admitted to the camp.<br />
<br />● The camp management in Nusaybin informed UNHCR that, due to increasing temperature in the region and considering the conditions in the tents, they have procured about 1,500 fans <br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://data.unhcr.org/syrianrefugees/download.php?id=6202" target="_blank">For the full report please click.</a> <br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Syria Monitorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02565017886866968391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3390350408423940673.post-23849386168722369312014-06-11T16:13:00.000+02:002014-06-21T16:20:26.602+02:00The return of polio in Turkey: Syrian refugees in Istanbul<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<br />
Over the past weeks and months, I have often dealt with Turkey's
overt and covert involvement in Syria's not-so civil war next door. The
country at the moment is home to at least 720,000 Syrian refugees.<br />
Only a small fraction of these have been registered and are
housed in camps, with around 500,000 refugees living in urban
centers throughout the country, and migrating west with the hope
of ending up in Istanbul – Turkey officially estimates that about
120,000 Syrians actually live there now.<br />
<br />
These Syrians have risked life and limb to escape from the
dangers of war. And now it turns out, these Syrian refugees have
become a source of danger in their own right.<br />
<br />
The Turkish authorities are afraid of a sudden and fatal outbreak
of the poliovirus (popularly better known as infantile paralysis)
in Istanbul, a virus carried by the youngest of refugees now
residing in the city.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<br />
Between June 5 and 11, more than 500,000 children will be
vaccinated against the poliovirus and to that end, specialist
teams are now going door to door in an effort to inoculate the
children of Syrian refugees.
<br />
The wider city of Istanbul has been put on alert, with the aim of
inoculating all foreign and particularly Syrian children (between
the ages of 0 and 5) in six large districts – Fatih, Sultangazi,
Esenler, Küçükçekmece, Sancaktepe and Ümraniye. But, in order to
avoid widespread panic amongst the Turkish population, this
far-reaching vaccination campaign is being carried out without
any large-scale ad campaign, television spots or other means of
spreading the word.<br />
<br />
In October 2013, the World Health Organization (WHO) said that
polio had been detected amongst the children of Syrian refugees.
From that date on, children under the age of 5, living in Turkish
areas bordering Syria, have been inoculated – in the urban
centers of Gaziantep, Hatay, Kilis, Şanlıurfa, Mardin, Şırnak and
Adana to be precise.<br />
<br />
In Turkey, the most severe outbreak of the poliovirus dates back
to November 1998, and since then there has not been another case
seen in the country. As such, <i>"[o]n 21 June 2002 the Regional
Commission for the Certification of Poliomyelitis Eradication
certified the European Region of the World Health Organization
(WHO) as free of indigenous wild poliovirus transmission ... The
European Region was the third polio-free WHO region, following
the American and Western Pacific Regions,”</i> as expressed in
the Journal of General Virology. In fact, the disease had been
all but eradicated by means of the Salk (1955) and Sabin (1962)
vaccines, with only three countries worldwide at risk of becoming
subject to a large-scale polio outbreak – Afghanistan, Pakistan,
and Nigeria. But on a global scale, the health situation has now
become much worse, with the effects of climate change, resource
rivalry, and unchecked population growth (in certain areas)
taking its toll, so that the American award-winning journalist
Sarah Stillman can confidently claim that <i>"Iraq, South Sudan,
Somalia, Cameroon, and the Central African Republic, with recent
appearances in Gaza and the West Bank"</i> constitute
<i>"trouble spots"</i> where the poliovirus can once again rear
its more than ugly head and cripple the local population.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="article_img" style="float: none; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">
<img alt="Haqima, a 14-year old Syrian refugee, and her sister Nour stand in their tent at a refugee camp in Nizip in Gaziantep province, near the Turkish-Syrian border.(Reuters / Murad Sezer)" src="http://rt.com/files/opinionpost/28/5a/c0/00/23.jpg" height="224" style="float: none; margin: 0px;" width="400" /><br />
<div class="article_img_footer">
Haqima,
a 14-year old Syrian refugee, and her sister Nour stand in their tent
at a refugee camp in Nizip in Gaziantep province, near the
Turkish-Syrian border.(Reuters / Murad Sezer)</div>
</div>
<h2>
Polio alert
</h2>
Turkey, as part of the WHO European Region, was a safe zone where
polio was under control and children routinely vaccinated. But
Syria's not-so civil war has changed all that, and now
<i>"health agencies are warning of the risk of polio spreading
across the Middle East from Syria"</i> as summer approaches.
<br />
The situation in Syria is troubling: <i>"Vaccination rates in
Syria have fallen from 91 percent in 2010 to just 68 percent in
2012 — and the number today is most likely much lower. Twenty
five cases of polio have been confirmed in Syria, in addition to
84 cases of measles in the first week of 2014, according to the
World Health Organization"</i>.
<br />
The WHO itself issued this statement regarding the health
situation in Syria: <i>"[s]ince 2010, at least two immunization
campaigns have been conducted every year across Syria. All
national campaigns strive to reach all areas of the country,
including those under opposition control. Activities in some
areas of a country may be deferred due to a number of reasons,
including active fighting or insecurity. Such areas are then
tracked, and re-covered as rapidly as possible. For example, in
the national campaign of December 2012, Deir Al Zour activities
were deferred; the governorate was covered one month later in
January 2013, and 67,000 children were vaccinated. Within five
days of WHO’s polio alert on 19 October 2013 a vaccination
campaign was launched, reaching an estimated 2.2 million
children, including a reported 600,000 from Al-Raqqa, Rural
Damascus and Deir Al Zour. Three vaccination rounds have now been
conducted in Syria.</i>
<br />
<i>The most recent national round, in January 2014, was carried
out in all Governorates. Preliminary results suggest that vaccine
coverage was greater than 85% in all but three of Syria’s
governorates, and that coverage was greater than 75% in two of
those three"</i>. Still, the Turkish authorities are concerned
and indicated that at the moment, everybody, irrespective of age
or health, crossing the Turkish-Syrian border is liable to fall
prey to the poliovirus.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="article_img" style="float: none; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">
<img alt="Reuters / Hosam Katan" src="http://rt.com/files/opinionpost/28/5a/c0/00/24.jpg" height="224" style="float: none; margin: 0px;" width="400" /><br />
<div class="article_img_footer">
Reuters / Hosam Katan</div>
<div class="article_img_footer">
<br /></div>
</div>
And in the further course of the summer more and more districts
of the metropolitan area of Istanbul can become subject to an
inoculation campaign. In view of rumors spreading online and
through the grapevine, Turkey's Minister for Health Mehmet
Müezzinoğlu has spoken to the press in an effort to calm the
population and dispel unfounded stories and troubling gossip:
<i>"What part of a campaign, designed with the help of the
scientific establishment, that we are applying in six large
districts of Istanbul can we keep secret? Nobody has the right to
spread rumors, to create panic. This is a matter of health.
Health cannot be directed by means of sensationalist news flashes
[or] gossip."</i> Müezzinoğlu went on to say that our
<i>"[s]ociety needs to know that [our] ministry is taking all
the necessary precautions, while doing all the requisite
evaluations in conjunction with the scientific establishment [,
arguably here referring to the WHO]. And we will continue to take
[the necessary precautions]. There is no need now to spread any
form of extraordinary panic or any kind of negative atmosphere as
some seem willing to ferment. These are operations that we have
informed the public of in a clear and open fashion".</i> The
Republic of Turkey now appears to be acting in accordance with
the wishes of the WHO. Towards the end of last year, the
organization published this stark warning: the <i>"current
poliomyelitis (polio) outbreak in the Syrian Arab Republic and
remaining polio-endemic countries (Afghanistan, Nigeria and
Pakistan), as well as frequent population movements and
vaccination gaps in some European countries, increases the risk
of the international spread of wild poliovirus. As long as the
virus is circulating in the world and vaccination coverage is not
optimal, polio threatens to return to the WHO European
Region".</i>
<br />
Will Turkey's metropolis of Istanbul now become the gateway for
the poliovirus' unexpected return to the European continent? Has
Minister Müezzinoğlu the situation under control and will the
current vaccination campaign prove to be sufficient? Or will
Syria's not-so civil war be the source of a 21st-century polio
epidemic that will once again engulf the whole wide world?<br />
<br />
Dr. Can Erimtan<br />
<br />
<a href="http://rt.com/op-edge/165292-turkey-syrian-refugees-istanbul-polio/" target="_blank">http://rt.com/op-edge/165292-turkey-syrian-refugees-istanbul-polio/</a></div>
Syria Monitorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02565017886866968391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3390350408423940673.post-41696899457582031832014-05-19T16:37:00.000+02:002014-06-21T16:38:48.611+02:00Bulgaria’s Ugly Underside: 'Containing' a Refugee Crisis<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The Bulgarian guards found us, pointed their
guns at us and started beating us,” the 25-year-old Afghan said,
describing what happened to him on 11 January.<br />
<br />
“Afterward, they put us in the car and took us to the border. They
took all our phones and money and any valuables we had. Before releasing
us, they beat us again and pointed to Turkey and told us to go there.”<br />
Faced with the prospect late last year of growing numbers of Syrians
and other asylum seekers and migrants arriving via Turkey, the Bulgarian
Council of Ministers opted for a “plan for the containment of the
crisis”.<br />
Containment does not pretend to solve a crisis, or even to treat its
victims fairly and humanely, but implies just keeping a lid on it.<br />
<br />
Among the principal aims was “reducing the number of persons seeking
protection in the territory of Bulgaria.” Bulgaria deployed 1,500
additional police to the border.<br />
<a name='more'></a> <br /><br />
In the month before the plan went into effect, an average of 116
people crossed the border without permission every day; in the first
five weeks of 2014, the daily average was fewer than three people. By
the end of January, the interior ministry said that “the influx of
illegal immigrants has practically ceased."<br />
<br />
The government proceeded on the assumption that people entering
without documents were not refugees, but simply irregular immigrants.<br />
<br />
The president of the State Agency for Refugees told Bulgarian
National Radio on April 27 that a person only had to “show up at a
border crossing point and say that they were asylum seekers, carrying
their ID documents with them”.<br />
<br />
But under international refugee law an ID is not a prerequisite for
lodging an asylum claim. And those without documents would never be able
to exit a Turkish checkpoint and enter at an official Bulgarian entry
point. So, undocumented people wanting to make a refugee claim in
Bulgaria have no alternative but to try to enter the country
irregularly.<br />
<br />
“They fired into the sky to scare us and we ran to Turkey,” the young
Afghan man told us. “We had no chance even to ask for asylum.”<br />
<br />
I was part of a Human Rights Watch team that interviewed 177 migrants
and asylum seekers on both sides of the border in December and January.<br />
<br />
On December 10, we visited the Elhovo police station, on the
Bulgarian side, where in early November an Amnesty International team
had found about 500 people crammed into cages in a converted basketball
court. We found the cages empty. The Elhovo police chief told us no one
had been brought in since 6 November, the date the containment plan was
announced.<br />
<br />
Although conditions for detainees in Elhovo were bad, they at least succeeded in entering the country.<br />
We interviewed 41 people, mostly in Turkey, who were less fortunate.
They described being forced back to Turkey and gave detailed accounts of
44 pushback incidents, involving at least 519 people.<br />
<br />
In the first five weeks of 2014 — when only 99 asylum seekers
succeeded in crossing from Turkey to Bulgaria — more than 20,000 Syrian
refugees entered Turkey. By the end of January, Turkey had registered
580,756 Syrian refugees and another 44,800 non-Syrian asylum seekers.<br />
<br />
<b>
</b><b>The number is still growing.</b><br />
<br />
The number of refugees in Bulgaria, however, has decreased by 27
percent, from 9,247 registered asylum seekers in mid-December, to 6,832
as of March 19.<br />
<br />
Bulgaria, with EU and other international help, has improved the
humanitarian situation inside the country. But these improvements should
not mask the ugly pushbacks taking place in the shadows at the Turkish
border.<br />
<br />
The European Commission has taken initial steps on enforcement action against Bulgaria over alleged pushbacks of Syrians.<br />
<br />
The EU and others need to keep up the pressure on Bulgaria not only
to maintain improvements in its reception conditions and asylum
procedures, but also to guarantee the most fundamental protection —
access to the territory to lodge asylum claims.<br />
<br />
<em>Bill Frelick is the director of the refugee program at Human Rights Watch </em><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.hrw.org/news/2014/05/19/bulgaria-s-ugly-underside-containing-refugee-crisis" target="_blank">http://www.hrw.org/news/2014/05/19/bulgaria-s-ugly-underside-containing-refugee-crisis </a><em><br /></em><br />
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Syria Monitorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02565017886866968391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3390350408423940673.post-2687550786630330722014-04-29T16:41:00.000+02:002014-06-21T16:49:30.054+02:00Containment Plan: Bulgaria’s Pushbacks and Detention of Syrian and Other Asylum Seekers and Migrants<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
HRW Report: Containment Plan</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Bulgaria’s
Pushbacks and Detention of Syrian and Other Asylum Seekers and
Migrants</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
April 2014</div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="content filter-text">
<div class="node-body">
This 76-page report documents how in recent
months Bulgarian border police, often using excessive force, have
summarily returned people who appear to be asylum seekers to Turkey. The
people have been forced back across the border without proper
procedures and with no opportunity to lodge asylum claims. Bulgaria
should end summary expulsions at the Turkish border, stop the excessive
use of force by border guards, and improve the treatment of detainees
and conditions of detention in police stations and migrant detention
centers.</div>
<div class="node-body">
</div>
<div class="node-body">
<a href="http://www.hrw.org/reports/2014/04/30/containment-plan-0" target="_blank">Click to read the full report. </a></div>
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Syria Monitorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02565017886866968391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3390350408423940673.post-64700966239119334402014-01-15T12:49:00.003+01:002014-01-15T12:49:35.063+01:00AFAD Report: Syrian Refugees in Turkey, Field Survey Results 2013<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Turkey Prime Ministry Disaster and Emergency Managment Presidency <a href="https://www.afad.gov.tr/EN/Index.aspx" target="_blank">(AFAD)</a> published a report on Syrian refugee in Turkey.<br />
<br />
From the introduction part of the report;<br />
<br />
...<br />
AFAD conducted an extensive profiling survey with Syrian refuges living in temporary accommodation centers and outside the centers in various cities in Turkey. Survey aims to (1) collect data to improve the conditions and quality of the service in the temporary accommodation centers, (2) obtain demographic socio-economic and socio-cultural information about the Syrian refugees, (3) do a needs assessment for the humanitarian needs of the Syrian refugees living in various cities outside the temporary protection centers.<br />
<br />
The profiling survey is carried out as face to face interview in the accommodation centers in Adana, Adıyaman, Hatay, Gaziantep, Kahramanmaraş, Kilis, Malatya, Mardin, Osmaniye and Şanlıurfa. Survey includes questions on demographic and socio-economic profile, accommodation, security, health, education, nutrition, water and cleaning, and expectations for the future. The survey in temporary accommodation centers collected information from 7,860 refugees in 1,420 households and the survey for refugees living in various cities outside the temporary accommodation centers includes data from 7,340 individuals in 1,160 households.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.afad.gov.tr/Dokuman/TR/61-2013123015505-syrian-refugees-in-turkey-2013_print_12.11.2013_eng.pdf" target="_blank">To read the full report in English please click.</a></div>
Syria Monitorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02565017886866968391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3390350408423940673.post-16634561956460158612014-01-01T10:54:00.000+01:002014-01-05T10:54:34.944+01:00Syrian Refugees Having a Hard Time In Greece<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<img alt="refugee-syria-greece_full_600" height="213" src="http://greece.greekreporter.com/files/refugee-syria-greece_full_600.jpg" width="320" /></div>
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As the civil war in Syria gets worse day by day, the number of refugees who seek better luck has been constantly increasing. The host countries in Europe and the Middle East have grown uneasy over the new arrivals. Greece is the main and easiest access for Syrian refugees to reach Europe.<br />
<br />
But as Greece enters its seventh year of recession, and as Greek society is reeling from painful cuts and strict measures, the phenomenon of xenophobia is rising. Indicative of this situation is that the Greek neo-Nazi party is the third most popular party in Greece according to opinion polls, while attacks on immigrants and refugees become more and more common every day.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
Many incidents showing that xenophobic behaviors and racist attitudes have infiltrated to the Greek Police authorities came to light by the Greek magazine, Hot Doc last week. The Greek Chief of Police advised officers that undocumented immigrants should be detained for as long as possible, and their “lives must be made unbearable.” The alleged comments were made during a meeting of police officials, as reported Hot Doc magazine. The police chief is alleged to have said, “If they told me I could go to a country…and would be detained for three months and then would be free to steal and rob, to do whatever you want…that is great.”<br />
<br />
He continued, “We aim to increase the detention period…we increased it to eighteen months…for what purpose? We must make their lives unbearable…”<br />
<br />
Hot Doc magazine also included an audio of the comments by the police chief.<br />
<br />
These comments may shock the public, but they have not appeared out of the blue. For years, human right groups and NGOs have criticized the way that Greek authorities have been treating refugees and immigrants. Moreover, the European Court of Human Rights has condemned Greece on several occasions for mistreating refugees or immigrants. The most recent of these occasions was the decision that was taken by the European Court of Human Rights to condemn Greece for mistreating and illegally deporting a political refugee from Iran and for illegally jailing and mistreating another 13 asylum seekers from various countries that entered through Turkey. The court ordered Greece to pay 8,000 euros ($10,960) to the Iranian deportee and between 5,000 ($6,850) and 10,000 euros ($13,700) to each of the 13 asylum seekers.<br />
<br />
Greece was among the countries that signed the UN Convention on Refugees in 1956. With this signature, Greece had the obligation to protect and to recognize refugees and asylum seekers. Since last summer, all Syrian refugees who left their homeland due to the ongoing war and managed to get to Greece, have been automatically granted a 6-month permit that can be renewed.<br />
<br />
However, those who make it to Greece confront terrible living conditions. Refugees and undocumented immigrants that arrive at the Greek islands are detained for days in overcrowded cells. Whole families have to sleep in parks, even in cold weather. Moreover, the procedure that a refugee had to follow in order to even apply for an asylum takes too long, or it is being stalled by Greek authorities.<br />
<br />
Syrian refugees who manage to get to Greece have to face the hostility and brutality of Greek authorities in addition to the dangerous attempt to even leave their country. Greek police and coast guard officers have been involved in many cases of ill-treatment and illegal-pushbacks of refugees, mainly Syrians intercepted along the Greek-Turkish border.<br />
<br />
Source: <a href="http://greece.greekreporter.com/2014/01/01/syrian-refugees-having-a-hard-time-in-greece/" target="_blank">http://greece.greekreporter.com/2014/01/01/syrian-refugees-having-a-hard-time-in-greece/</a></div>
Syria Monitorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02565017886866968391noreply@blogger.com0