Category Archives: News Digest

HarekAct offers a topical and chronological collection of news on the EU-Turkish border regime under this section. We link to external newspapers and websites and do not hold the copyright.
Views and opinions expressed in the articles published on HarekAct are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the view of all editorial board members.

Report on Syrian migrant in Istanbul textile sector

The Birleşik Metal İşçileri Sendikası (Metalworkers Union) published a report on Syrian migrants’ labour market. The study focuses on their situation in the textile sector in Istanbul.

Click here to proceed to the study, which is only available in Turkish. Following you can find a short abstract in English: Continue reading Report on Syrian migrant in Istanbul textile sector

One Iraqi stabbed in brawl between locals, refugees in Ankara

Via Hurriyet Daily News – One Iraqi was stabbed in a brawl between locals and a group of Iraqis and Syrians in the Turkish capital Ankara on July 3, state-run Anadolu Agency has reported. Tension rose due to unknown reasons between locals and Iraqis before an Iraqi Turkmen was stabbed during the brawl, and later taken to hospital in Ankara’s Yenimahalle district.

Following the brawl, several locals and the refugees were involved in another fight, in which seven Syrian and Iraqi Turkmens were injured. Locals living in Yenimahalle’s Demetevler neighborhood attacked workplaces and houses, where the refugees have settled after escaping from their war-torn countries, with sticks and stones. Continue reading One Iraqi stabbed in brawl between locals, refugees in Ankara

Arbitrary Detention in Lesbos – Refugees Driven to Hunger Strike to Protest Inhumane Conditions

The Legal Center Lesbos condemns the unlawful practice of indiscriminately detaining people who are in the process of applying for international protection. The Greek Asylum Service is currently automatically detaining applicants whose initial appeals have been rejected, and arbitrarily detaining people of certain nationalities for the entire duration of their applications.

via Legal Center Lesvos
via Legal Center Lesvos

Continue reading Arbitrary Detention in Lesbos – Refugees Driven to Hunger Strike to Protest Inhumane Conditions

Greek Coast Guards hindering civil rescue operations

NoBorder Greece on how the Greek coast guards is hindering civil rescue operations in the Aegean, North of Lesvos and support for refugees arriving:

photo: Platanos Refugee Solidarity Lesvos (archive)

“The coast guard and authorities are making it harder and harder for the volunteers and rescue boats to operate here in the north of Lesvos. For weeks now volunteer rescue boats are not allowed to launch unless they ask 24hrs in advance. They are not being given permission to launch when there is an incident in spite of the fact that they are close by and the coast guard can take 40 minutes. They are only allowed to launch once a day if they are given permission, we are not sure what law they are applying, issuing fines to rescue boats for any infraction and it is not always clear why. Continue reading Greek Coast Guards hindering civil rescue operations

Syrian women in Turkey’s refugee camps forced into prostitution

The Stockholm Center for Freedom reports about forced prostitutions of female Syrians in AFAD-run refugee camps:

Syrian women who had to fled from their war-torn country to Turkey with their families have been forced into prostitution in the refugee camps, which have been administered by Turkish state-run AFAD (Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency) in Elbeyli district of Kilis province and Islahiye district of Gaziantep province, reported by pro-Kurdish Dihaber news agency. Continue reading Syrian women in Turkey’s refugee camps forced into prostitution

13 days old baby of Syrian family dies of hunger

Via T24 (Link in Turkish) – The baby of a Syrian family died of starvation 13 days after it was born. According to CNN Türk, the couple, Muhammad and Iman Kadah settled in Yalova, a city close to Istanbul, in the Musafa Kemal Paşa neighborhood. They build a makeshift house with planks of wood and plastic sheets with several families of asylum seekers and started to live there.

The mother tried to breastfeed her baby but it didn’t take the milk. They did not have the money to buy baby-food either. On the morning of the 28th June, the mother realized that her baby had died. The police that arrived to the scene had difficulties to communicate as the family did not speak Turkish. The baby was brought to the Yalova state hospital to examine the cause of the death.


Read the article in Turkish here