165,000 Syrian refugees trapped between ISIS and the Turkish border

Turkish border guards watch ISIS militants in Syria order refugees away from the Tal Abyad-Akçakale border crossing in June 2015. Photo: AFP

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.

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. 

The Many Failures of the EU-Turkey Refugee Deal

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.
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.
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.

Only 177 Syrian refugees resettled in EU under deal with Turkey

Fewer than 200 Syrians have been resettled in Europe under the EU’s controversial refugee deal with Turkey, figures from the European commission have revealed.

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 Europe has taken only a tiny number of Syrians from Turkey.
A total of 177 Syrians who were in Turkey have been found homes in five EU member states, the figures showed.

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.

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 deal is at risk of unravelling as Turkey refuses to change its anti-terror laws to meet a key EU demand on visa-free travel.

Syrian refugees in Turkey 'denied access to lawyers and specialised medical care'

The fate of the newly returned refugees casts further doubt on the viability of the EU’s flagship refugee deal Credit: AFP/Getty Images

Syrian refugees returned to Turkey as part of a controversial deal with the European Union are being held without access to lawyers or specialised medical care.

A 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.  

“You can’t imagine how bad a situation we are in right now,” a woman detained with her children told the Guardian newspaper by phone. “My children and I are suffering, the food is not edible.
"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.”

Among the group is at least one pregnant woman. The whereabouts of two more Syrians returned from Greece last month remains unknown.

Outlook Darkens for Syria Refugees in Turkey

By Ayla Albayrak

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.

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.

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.

“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.”
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.

More funds needed for million Syrian refugees in Turkey: UNHCR

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.

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.

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.

Carol Batchelor, the UNHCR representative in Turkey, said there was a global responsibility to look after the refugees.

"The basic needs of the Syrian refugees vastly outweigh the support and funding from the international community," Batchelor told Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Syrian refugees in Turkey exceed 1 million mark

The number of Syrians in neighbouring Turkey has surpassed 1 million, the Turkish deputy prime minister has said.

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.

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.

Syrian Refugees Having a Hard Time In Greece

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.

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.

Fortress Europe: Syrian refugee shame exposed

European leaders should hang their heads in shame over the pitifully low numbers of refugees from Syria they are prepared to resettle, said Amnesty International. 

In a briefing published today, An international failure: The Syrian refugee crisis, the organization details how European Union (EU) member states have only offered to open their doors to around 12,000 of the most vulnerable refugees from Syria: just 0.5 per cent of the 2.3 million people who have fled the country. 

“The EU has miserably failed to play its part in providing a safe haven to the refugees who have lost all but their lives. The number of those it’s prepared to resettle is truly pitiful. Across the board European leaders should hang their heads in shame,” said Salil Shetty, Secretary General of Amnesty International. 

Syrian refugees in Turkish camps live on 80 liras of monthly aid

 

Syrian refugees staying in refugee camps in the southern provinces of Turkey have been living on an allowance of 80 Turkish Liras ($40 or 29 euros) per month, according to a recent report drafted by the Parliament’s Human Rights Inquiry Commission.

Hot meal distribution in refugee camps was stopped due to “food culture differences,” and refugees now cook their meals on their own with ingredients they buy from markets at refugee camps via a card system. Many refugees complained that 80 liras was not enough for their food shopping from grocery providers at refugee camps, since no other monetary assistance was provided to the refugees, the report said.

Sixty of the 80 liras are provided by the United Nation’s World Food Program while remaining 20 liras are provided by Turkish Prime Ministry’s Disaster and Emergency Management Directorate (AFAD).

Syrian Refugees Find Discomfort and Unrest in Bulgaria

Khaled stayed in Syria until the last possible moment. He had an important job to do, working with a clandestine network delivering aid to devastated Damascus neighborhoods. One by one, other members of the network had disappeared. Some were killed, others arrested, while many became so embittered by regime atrocities they decided to take up arms. When he was the last one left, Khaled — who requested that only his first name be published for fear that relatives still in Syria could face retribution from the government — decided it was too dangerous to stay. He set off for what he hoped would be peaceful sanctuary in Europe.

But in the six months since he left home, Europe has not been as kind to Khaled as he was to his fellow Syrians. After a difficult trek across the mountains from Turkey to Bulgaria, border guards detained the 32-year-old for illegal entry. After explaining his plight, he was shuttled between overcrowded holding centers for two months, eventually paying $370 in fees to lawyers and translators to get the government approval he needed to live outside the camps. Finally he has his liberty; now he fears for his safety.

No easy way to Germany for Syrian refugees

Syrian refugees trying to get to the EU through Turkey

More than 24,000 Syrians have fled to Germany since the beginning of the civil war in their country two and a half years ago. Many risk their lives through illegal entries, as there are few legal ways. 

The Greek coast guard ends the dream of many Syrians refugees hoping to enter the European Union by stoping their boats near the eastern Aegean islands in the Mediterranean and sending them back to Turkey. Many Syrians have been trying to use this route to enter the EU since the closing of the Turkish-Greek land border in the summer of 2012.

The journey is risky. Since August 2012, 149 people have lost their lives in the sea between Turkey and Greece, according to the human rights organization Pro Asyl. Most of them were Syrian refugees.
"The fact that they choose this path shows that they have no choice," says Bernd Mesovic, deputy managing director of Pro Asyl.

Syrian refugees decline to be moved to camps, Istanbul governor says

Syrian refugees go on their daily life in a park on November 3, 2013,
in Istanbul According to the Turkish Disaster Management Authority,
the number of Syrian refugees in Turkey has exceeded 600,000
and more than 400,000 of them are living outside refugee camps.
AFP photo

Syrian refugees in Istanbul refuse to be moved to camps, Istanbul Governor Hüseyin Avni Mutlu said, calling on people in the city to inform the authorities when they saw Syrians living outside.

“The presence of Syrian refugees living homelessly in open spaces in our city has been drawing our attention for some time,” the governor said in a Twitter message Dec. 3.

Mutlu said they had been trying to persuade these refugees to settle down in the camps provided by the Turkish states through the Turkish Red Crescent, but so far only 34 people from 7 families had agreed.

UNHCR concerned at reports that asylum seekers, including Syrians, denied entry to some EU countries

The UN refugee agency said Friday it was "greatly concerned" over reports that some European Union (EU) countries were placing barriers to entry or forcibly returning asylum-seekers, including people who have fled Syria.

"UNHCR is calling, globally as well as in the European Union, for a shift away from border protection to protection of people," UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards told journalists in Geneva. "If practices to prevent asylum-seekers from accessing territory and procedures are taking place, UNHCR calls on states to cease them immediately. Push-backs and prevention of entry can put asylum-seekers at further risk and expose them to additional trauma," he added.

In Bulgaria, UNHCR is seeking more information from the authorities on their reported activities at the border with Turkey to stem the flow of refugees into the country. Media reports say Bulgaria turned back 100 migrants at the border over the weekend and deployed some 1,200 police officers to the southern border region.

Greek special forces push back Syrian refugees, NGO says

Syrian refugees are being forced back into
Turkey from Greece, says a German NGO 

BRUSSELS - Armed special-op units in Greece are reportedly repelling asylum seekers and refugees in commando-like operations on its Turkish land border and out at sea.

The allegations, gathered in around 90 anonymous testimonies of intercepted migrants along with two unnamed French journalists, are detailed in a report out Thursday (7 November) by the German-based Pro Asyl NGO.

“These push-backs happen in a brutal, life-threatening way on a daily basis,” Pro Asyl director Karl Kopp told reporters at press briefing, co-organised by the Brussels-based European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE), on Thursday.

Boats with migrants in distress were left to fend for themselves or towed by the special-op units into Turkish waters, he said.

Syrian Refugees: The kindness of a stranger in a southern Turkey border town

Syrian refugees in the southern Turkey town of Akcakale
 collect aid donated by private individuals and aid organizations.

AKCAKALE, Turkey, November 7 (UNHCR) – Some 200 metres from no-man's land, and the war zone beyond, stands a dusty street lined by modest houses, shops, garages and an office. Outside the office a crowd waits under the scorching sun for an aid distribution.

They are among the 10,000 registered Syrian urban refugees who have made their home in Akcakale, a southern Turkey border town of more than 35,000 people before the influx. Just down the road another 30,000 Syrians live in a crowded refugee camp set up by the Turks with tents and equipment from UNHCR.

The crowd outside the office in Akcakale are waiting for a truck to arrive with relief items collected by private citizens and non-governmental organizations. Armed with a registration card, each family will be given oil, sugar and a box of basic foodstuffs.

As the refugees continue to pour into Turkey, UNHCR is helping by providing 23 mobile registration centres around the country, along with more blankets and stoves for the winter.

Syrian crisis fuelling public health emergency, doctors warn

Syrian refugees crossing into  Turkey, with which it shares an 850km border. A doctor warned: 'Every day, people cross these borders unchecked. Some of them might travel to other Turkish cities and on to Europe.' Photograph: Osman Orsal/Reuters

They crossed the border at dead of night, a 12-week-old baby in her mother's arms. They tiptoed through a minefield, squirmed through barbed wire. The cost: 15,000 Syrian pounds; the reason: an unexplained sickness that had overcome the infant.
In a bare room on the Turkish side of the border, where the sole piece of furniture is an old television set, the little girl was wheezing and breathing heavily. "We were very scared, but we had no choice," said the father, who asked that the family's names be withheld. "In Qamishli [north-east Syria] nobody could help, so we decided to come to Turkey. She has breathing problems."
She is not alone. Doctors and aid workers on both sides of the Turkey-Syria border are raising the alarm about a public health emergency careering out of control and spreading across southern Europe as the tide of human misery from Syria inexorably heads north.

Syrian Refugees Face an Increasingly Horrific Situation in Turkey

A Syrian refugee man sits in front of a container in a refugee camp named "Container City" on the Turkish-Syrian border in Oncupinar in Kilis province, southern Turkey. (Umit Bektas/Reuters)

KILIS, Turkey and JARABULUS, Syria —  Malek, a 46-year-old Syrian farmer who lives outside the Kilis refugee camp in a litter-infested lot, asked me, “Will our suffering last long?” He, along with 200 refugees, most families, fled to Turkey after Bashar al-Assad’s chemical weapons attack in August.
These are grueling times for Syrian refugees. Since March 2011, when the peaceful protests began, more than two million Syrians have fled, seeking asylum in one of four neighboring countries — Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, and Iraq — and leading to an increasingly unsustainable burden on these nations. Malek, who has a young son, asked, “All of the international community is working against us. Are we all animals? Is there no humanity?” He believes that this failure of foreign governments to assist the refugees has allowed Assad to “use us as wood for the fire in Syria.”

Number of Syrian refugees in Turkey exceeds 600,000: Turkish official

(Reuters) - The number of Syrian refugees in Turkeyhas exceeded 600,000 and more than 400,000 of them are living outside refugee camps, the Turkish disaster management agency said on Monday.

"We conducted a study before the Eid (al-Adha) holidays and the numbers have increased above 600,000," said Mustafa Aydogdu, spokesman for the Disaster and Emergency Management Directorate (AFAD).

Turkey, which shares a 900-km (560-mile) border with Syria, is a strong critic of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and a main supporter of the rebels fighting against him.

It has said it will maintain its "open door" policy to those fleeing the Syrian civil war, now in its third year, although it has closed border crossings from time to time following clashes near the frontier.

About 200,000 Syrians were living in 21 refugee camps, mainly near cities near the border, Aydogdu said, while the rest chose to live in rented accommodation outside the camps.

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said in August Turkey has already spent around $2 billion sheltering the refugees. The United Nations expects another 2 million Syrians to become refugees in 2014 and 2.25 million more to be displaced within the country.

(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk; Editing by Janet Lawrence and Angus MacSwan)

Source: Reuters http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/21/us-syria-crisis-turkey-refugees-idUSBRE99K04O20131021

More refugees live outside of camps in Turkey: UN

Syrian refugees fill buckets with water at an improvised camp for
Syrian refugees in Kfar Zabad. There are over 200,000 in 20 refugee
camps in 10 provinces in Turkey, according to the UN.
 REUTERS photo

Number of Syrian refugees in Turkey living outside exceeds those living in camps, a UN official says. ‘Over 200,000 are registered outside of the camps, plus another 30,000 with appointment to be registered,’ the official says.


The largest proportion of Syrian refugees in Turkey today are those living outside of refugee camps, who now outnumber refugees sheltered in the camps, says United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Representative to Turkey Carol Batchelor, describing this as the most challenging aspect of Turkey’s hosting of Syrian refugees now.