Tag Archives: Syrian-Turkish border

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Syrian War Refugees Have ‘No Place Anymore’ as Turkey Pushes Them to Return Home

Molly O’Toole covers the complexity of the life between displacement and return for Syrian refugees in Turkey. Putting together the stories of several Syrian interviewees, the article manifests the challanges regarding the flight to Turkey, the living conditions with severe barriers to registration, education, work and health, as well as the expectancies on resettlement despite the rising return discourse on refugees:

“The refugees face a no-win situation: If they return to Assad’s Syria, they risk conscription, disappearance and sectarian retribution, as well as an utter lack of basic services and opportunity. If they stay in Turkey, they face chronic uncertainty and destitution, as domestic and international politics turn against them.”

FE_Syrian Refugees_01_USE AS BANNER
Baraah Jajah, left, with her son Louai, 3, from Hama, Syria, at a tent camp in Reyhanli inhabited by Syrians, most of whom are agricultural workers. Photograph by Jodi Hilton


Via Newsweek – It was June 2011, and Barzan Ramo scrambled inside from the balcony. The 22-year-old college student was studying for his final exams in Deir Ezzor in eastern Syria when rebel groups and regime forces backing President Bashar al-Assad clashed beneath him.

Continue reading Syrian War Refugees Have ‘No Place Anymore’ as Turkey Pushes Them to Return Home →
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Bloomberg reports on the intolerance to migrants in the Southeastern Towns of Turkey

Selcan Hacaoglu takes on the rising anti-migrant sentiments against Syrians at the border towns of Turkey for Bloomberg Businessweek . The text involves some stigmatizing language, on which a critical reflection remains missing. Still we are posting here, since it also gives a glimpse of Syrians’ incorporation into different sectors of labour market.

A camp for displaced people in Kafr Lusin near the Bab al-Hawa border crossing with Turkey on April 1, 2018. Photographer: Ibrahim Yasouf/AFP via Getty Images

Via Bloomberg Businessweek

By Selcan Hacaoglu

As warplanes bombed his Syrian hometown of Aleppo, factory-owner Amer Hadri stepped on the gas pedal of his silver BMW 5 series and made for the safety of Turkey. Continue reading Bloomberg reports on the intolerance to migrants in the Southeastern Towns of Turkey →

News

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, as several returning Syrians had recently been killed, 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.

Some 4,000 Syrians who had taken refuge in different parts of Turkey flocked to the Cilvegözü border gate in Hatay province to cross back into their homeland, according to the initial report from state-run Anadolu Agency.
Continue reading Thousands of Syrian refugees return back to Syria from Turkey →

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Turkey closes down 6 out of 19 refugee camps due to austerity measures

Via Turkish Minute – Turkey has closed down six camps for Syrian refugees due to austerity measures the government has taken amidst economic problems, the Cumhuriyet daily reported on Thursday.

The move affected some 132,990 Syrian refugees.

According to the Interior Ministry, 76 percent of the refugees rented apartments with the help of allowances provided by the government. The remainder has been transferred to other camps.

Continue reading Turkey closes down 6 out of 19 refugee camps due to austerity measures →

News

Turkey empties Syrian border refugee camp

Via Ahval

The presence of 3.5 million Syrian refugees in Turkey has become an increasing source of tension among Turkish people and the Turkish government also appears to be losing sympathy for those displaced by the conflict.

The Interior Ministry this month closed the Süleyman Shah Accommodation Facility, which was established by the prime ministry in 2012 in the town of Akçakale on the Syrian border. But some of its 22,000 residents complained they had not received promised payments and alternative housing, and said they had simply been kicked out. Continue reading Turkey empties Syrian border refugee camp →

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Refugee camps flooded, 6 dead as heavy rains hit Lebanon, Turkey

Via Middle East Monitor

Refugee camps flooded, six dead as heavy rains hit Lebanon, Turkey [Twitter]
Refugee camps flooded, six dead as heavy rains hit Lebanon, Turkey [Twitter]

Flooding in Lebanon and Turkey has left refugees dead after heavy rains hit the region and swamped refugee camps.

Videos shared by member of the Syrian Negotiations Committee Hadi Albahra, reportedly from refugee camps near the Lebanese border town of Arsal, show the ground completely flooded, with tents and belongings destroyed.

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‘The head is Turkish, the body Syrian’: Expanding Turkish influence in northern Syria

We feel the urge to publish this internal view of Syria:direct from the out-of-sight Turkish-Syrian border, that is further moved into the northern Syrian territory. Since the Turkish state is increasingly investing in both internal and external policies for the return of Syrian refugees, in addition to the EUropean border regime that is extra fortified via the externalization of controls even-beyond the neighboring Turkey, it is vital to keep an eye on the ongoing situation at the Northern Syria. Apparently, Northern Syria became a regional refugee accommodation center for the displaced Syrians, with Turkey’s effort to exert control over the area through various mechanisms.  Therefore the region’s condition is a central determinant both for the responses of Syrian refugees in Turkey (be it from the region or not) to the incentives of return, and for the Syrians in Syria in considering their survival chances within the region or the options of further movement.

Via Syria:direct

Inauguration of a courthouse in a-Rai in September. Photo courtesy of the National Police and General Security Forces in a-Rai.

AMMAN: When the governor of Turkey’s Kilis province arrived at the opening ceremony of a new courthouse in the northern Aleppo town of a-Rai last month, he was met by Turkish music blasting out of speakers and salutes from local Syrian police officers. Continue reading ‘The head is Turkish, the body Syrian’: Expanding Turkish influence in northern Syria →

News

The Guardian on unlawful deportation from Turkey to Syria

Via The Guardian [16.10.2018] – With tension mounting in Idlib, people trying to flee across the border are being given the choice of detention or waiving their right to asylum

The Syrian town of Atimha, at the border wall between Turkey and Syria.
The Syrian town of Atimha, at the border wall between Turkey and Syria. Photograph: Osman Orsal/Reuters

Tareq* can recall in detail each of the 22 times he climbed over the concrete border wall, dodged a flurry of bullets, and sprinted as fast as he could – until Turkish border guards caught him and turned him back.

On his 23rd attempt, the soldiers drove the 26-year-old Syrian to a police station called Branch 500 in Hatay. There they presented him with a choice: either stay in prison – for how long, they wouldn’t say – or sign a paper and walk free.

“It’s not like they’re physically putting a gun to your head, but you have no other option,” Tareq says. He signed and the next day he was driven across the border and dropped back where he had started, in Idlib.

Continue reading The Guardian on unlawful deportation from Turkey to Syria →

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Turkey should seek outside help for refugee influx from Idlib – academic

 

Via Ahval –Turkey should seek outside help, rather than trying to handle on its own a possible influx of Syrian refugees due to Syrian government’s expected military offensive in the northwestern city of Idlib, Kemal Kirişci,  director of the Brookings Institute Center on the United States and Europe’s Turkey Project, wrote on Thursday.

Idlib, the last major rebel-held enclave in Syria, borders Turkey and hosts an estimated 3 million Syrians currently trapped in the province, around a third of whom are thought to be refugees displaced from other parts of the country.

The UN special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, warned on Tuesday that a possible military offensive of the Syrian government, backed by Iran and Russia, in Idlib could lead to 800,000 more refugees fleeing the country into Turkey, which already houses more than 3.5 million Syrian refugees.
Continue reading Turkey should seek outside help for refugee influx from Idlib – academic →

Reporting on the Turkish-EU Border Regime