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.

News Digest

Born in Turkey: Syrian children face uncertain future in new homeland

Migrant kids born in Turkey is a crucial and growing topic. 385,431 babies born to Syrian parents in Turkey between April 2011 and November 2018, according to official statistics. As mentioned in the report below many problems and risks emerge in this area: such as the the discriminative treatment migrant mothers face that may turn violent and traumatic during the labour, not having access to public hospitals (being refused, or being charged high prices) and therefore having to give birth in improper conditions, having difficulties to register the kids, and to receive health-care, education and other social services later on.

Via MEE, Ayse Karabat

Almost half of the 3.5 million Syrians in Turkey are children, according to UNICEF (AFP)

ISTANBUL, Turkey – Sham’s start in life was not easy.

“I was in labour. I was in pain, lying in the hospital bed, but the midwives did not help me,” recalls her mother Kawthar Muhammet, a Syrian now living in Turkey who uses the Turkish spelling of her last name, Mohammed. “They said to me, ‘You’re fleeing war and having sex?’ They called me names that I don’t want to repeat. They abandoned me.

This article was originally published by MEE.

News Digest

Thousands of Syrian refugees return back to Syria from Turkey

Even though Lebanon recently announced a slowdown in the number of Syrians returning from Lebanon, following the death of several returning Syrians, the Turkish state run Anadolu agency reports about thousands of Syrians crossing the border back to Syria.

Thousands of Syrian refugees return home from Turkey

Via Ahval – Thousands of Syrians have left Turkey over the past fortnight to return to their hometowns liberated from militants in northwestern Syria, Hürriyet Daily News reported.

This article was originally published by Ahval.

News Digest

HarekAct @ Hamisden Sesler, Açık Radyo

On 26th of November, HarekAct was invited to Istanbul’s Açık Radyo (Open Radio) program called Hamişden Sesler (Voices from Hamisch), a unique and outstanding radio program wich aims to spread “voices from exile on Syria and Syrians”.

Our member Pelin had the chance to explain how our blog was established, what are the topics that we have been covering, and our intentions to archive, monitor and incorporate more contributions to the blog in order to build a collection of critical and analytical literature on the issue of migration and border regime in and around Turkey.

The interview moved forward from explaining our name HarekAct, as a conjugation of “movement” and “action” that hints at the very basic element of freedom of movement and the related struggles as opposed to the regime that represents migration as a ‘crisis’; to informing on other bordermonitoring projects and groups within the bordermonitoring platform.

Furthermore Pelin elaborated on the role of editors, as well as her own motives of being a part of the board. Therefore she summarized the main function of the blog as “a space despite borders where people who want to raise their voices and discuss their struggles can find a place for themselves, particularly at these times when many are displaced and left without place”. Finally, she briefed on the latest issues covered by the Harekact posts and invited the audience to follow and join to us.

The full program can be listened through the Açık Radyo podcast in Turkish.

 

News Digest

“We are afraid”

Via taz gazete – An article reporting on the situation of Syrians in Izmir and growing racist tensions and attacks. Available in Turkish and German.

Foto: Sevda Aydın. Suriye’deki iç savaşın hemen başlarında en çok göç alan bölgelerden biri Basmane’ydi.

„Ceplerinde dolarlar var ama bedava çorba içiyorlar“

Büyük İskender, gördüğü bir rüyanın ardından insanların eskisinden dört kat mutlu yaşayacağını düşünerek Kadifekale’ye bir kent kurmaya karar verir. Kadifekale’de şimdilerde eskisinden dört kat daha mutsuz mülteciler yaşıyor.

„Wir haben Angst“

In İzmir leben 140.000 Syrer*innen. Viele Einheimische sehen sie als Gäste, die irgendwann wieder zurückkehren sollen – manche greifen die Geflüchteten an.

This articles were originally published by taz gazette.
News Digest

#WhereIsDerya? The Irani Women Protesting in front of UNHCR is Missing

We have previously posted about Derya, the Irani asylum-seeker who was protesting for more than a month in front of UNHCR on the claim that she has no life security in Turkey because of the life threats she has been receiving from her brother. Reports arrived a couple of days ago that non she has been missing.

A woman supporter who went to visit Derya in front of the UNHCR building could not find her and asked to the security guard, the guard responded that ‘someone took her’. The lawyers who support Derya could not find any information through UNHCR, DGMM or police stations. We are looking forward to find out where Derya is, we are urging the authorities to take an action to find her, particularly on this significant day, 25th of November, the international day for the elimination of the violence against woman.

See our post on social media for that matter.

 

News Digest

Iraq brings back hundreds of Mosul refugees from Turkey

Via Kurdistan 24

Iraqi displaced people in one of the camps in the Kurdistan Region. (Photo: Kurdistan 24/Alexandre Afonso)

ERBIL – Iraq’s Ministry of Displacement and Migration on Thursday stated that they had brought back hundreds of Iraqi nationals who had fled to neighboring Turkey over the past few years as refugees because of Islamic State (IS) threats.

This article was originally published by Kurdistan 24

News Digest

New evidence of police violence and illegal deportation of asylum seekers in Evros

The Greek group ‘Racist Crime Watch‘ published new evidence of police violence and illegal push-backs of asylum seekers from Greece to Turkey via the Evros river. In a letter to the Commissional for Human Rights of the Council of Europe, Dunja Mijatović, they address these mistreatments:

Another video evidence of police violence and illegal deportation of asylum seekers in Evros

Dear Commissioner,

Further to our 9 and 29 September 2018 letters, we are sending another update with information published in Hurriyet Daily News and reprinted (without editing) here.

Via Hurriyet Daily News (13th November) – Turkish villagers warmly welcome migrants after Greek police beat them naked

Turkish villagers warmly welcome migrants after Greek police beat them naked

Residents of the Kiremitçi Salih village in the northwestern Turkish province of Edirne warmly welcomed a group of migrants they found naked and exhausted in their fields late Nov. 11.

Continue reading New evidence of police violence and illegal deportation of asylum seekers in Evros →

News Digest

European Court of Auditors’ (ECA) report critical on the spending of 3 billion Euros from EU on the Facility for Refugees in Turkey

As part of the EU-Turkey-Deal the EU offered a payment of 3 billion Euros until 2018. The way the budget is used has always been criticized, particularly because of the lack of transparency and efficiency in distributing the aids in a fair manner for those in need, both by the refugees and the actors in the field. Now in its final report even the EU’s ECA criticizes the distribution of the budget, stating that a large amount of it has been wasted due to a lack of efficiency and effectiveness. Furthermore it clarifies that for a big amount of the EU-money it is unknown what it actually was spent on.

Once more it becomes clear that while in the context of the EU-Turkey-Deal the sealing of the European border to Turkey is effectively enforced, the promised support for the refugees in Turkey does often not reach them.

EU unable to fully trace €1bn spent on refugees in Turkey

Via euobserver – The EU is unable to verify with certainty how over €1bn of European taxpayer money was spent on Syrian refugees in Turkey because of Ankara’s data protection laws.

This article was originally published by euobserver.

Striking Audit Results by the EU’s ECA

Via AIMS Turkey – The EU’s European Court of Auditors (ECA) released their final report on the Facility for Refugees in Turkey yesterday. A short summary of the 63-page report, which contains quite astounding observations regarding the implementation of the EU-funded projects toward refugees in Turkey has been compiled by Y. Emre Küçükkaya and published by AIMS Turkey.