Tag Archives: Syrians

News Digest

Exile wreaks havoc on refugees’ sexual and reproductive health

Via Relief Web – Refugee women and girls face extraordinary hardships. They endure grave risks and often brutal violence, and many are thrust into poverty. But they can also face another, more intimate, hardship, one that is seldom discussed – the effects of exile on their sexual and reproductive health.

Some 475,000 Syrian refugees have sought safety in the desert city of Sanliurfa, Turkey, an hour’s drive from the Syrian border. To meet their needs, UNFPA is operating four women’s and girls’ safe spaces in the city, which are all supported by European Union Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO).

Continue reading Exile wreaks havoc on refugees’ sexual and reproductive health →

News Digest

Turkey involved in creating new ID forms for Syrians who ‘lost it all’

Turkey involved in creating new ID forms for Syrians who lost it all

Via Hürriyet Daily News – Opposition authorities are issuing new ID cards in northern Syria with help from neighboring Turkey, expanding their administration over territory that remains outside President Bashar al-Assad’s expanding area of control. Continue reading Turkey involved in creating new ID forms for Syrians who ‘lost it all’ →

News Digest

Turkey Stops Registering Syrian Asylum Seekers

New Arrivals Deported, Coerced Back to Syria

 

Two Syrians walk along a fence near the Turkish-Syrian border in Gaziantep province, Turkey on November 30, 2016.
Two Syrians walk along a fence near the Turkish-Syrian border in Gaziantep province, Turkey, November 30, 2016. Syrians who arrived in Turkey since late 2017 have been unable to register for temporary protection and receive basic services. © 2016 Umit Bektas/Reuters

 

Via Human Rights Watch – Turkish authorities in Istanbul and nine provinces on or near the Syrian border have stopped registering all but a handful of recently arrived Syrian asylum seekers. The suspension is leading to unlawful deportations, coerced returns to Syria, and the denial of health care and education.

The European Commission has recently praised Turkey’s asylum system and plans to release the second batch of €3 billion under its March 2016 migration deal which includes support for refugees in Turkey. European Union institutions and governments have stayed publicly silent on the suspension and other refugee abuses committed by Turkey, suggesting their primary concern is to halt the movement of asylum seekers and migrants from Turkey to the EU. Continue reading Turkey Stops Registering Syrian Asylum Seekers →

News Digest

Arabic signs removed in İstanbul district densely populated by Syrian refugees

Via Turkish Minute (from 29th June) – Officials from the Esenyurt Municipality in İstanbul on Friday removed signs in Arabic from district shops, in a neighborhood densely populated by Syrian refugees, in line with a recently adopted Turkish Standards Institute (TSE) rule that says the Turkish language should be a priority in signs.

The TSE announced in March that if shopkeepers want to use foreign languages, the type size of those words should be a quarter of the size of Turkish type.

Continue reading Arabic signs removed in İstanbul district densely populated by Syrian refugees →

Other Resources

Syrian refugee women, girls, and people with disabilities in Turkey

Via Relief Web – Turkey hosts the largest number of Syrian refugees, almost half of whom are women and girls.

This rapid review looks at available evidence on how Syrian refugee women, girls, and people with disabilities have been affected by the response to the refugee crisis by a variety of actors, including the host government, international actors, and host communities. Refugees in Turkey face a number of challenges, with female refugees and refugees with disabilities facing additional gender and disability specific barriers. Poverty is a major issue for refugees, with nearly 67% living below the poverty line.

Continue reading Syrian refugee women, girls, and people with disabilities in Turkey →

News Digest

A New Nightmare: Picked up in the Aegean and Returned to Syria

Saad Abdllah reports for the Samos Chronicles about a forced deportation from Turkey to Syria. His friend Mohammad was attempting to cross the Aegean Sea to Greece by boat with other migrants when they were picked up by the Turkish Coast Guard shortly after starting. They were then detained for 6 days, loaded onto a bus without knowing the destination and finally ended up in Idlib, Syria.

Little is known on what happens to migrants who are being picked up by the Turkish Coast Guard, Police or Gendarmery when trying to irregularly cross to Greece, except these horrific single stories of  detention and forced deportation. We would like to ask our readers to share their knowledge, insights, articles and contributions on this issue with us! Please contact us at harekact@bordermonitoring.eu.

Via Samos Chronicles (19th June) – For the past ten days I have been waiting for news from Mohammad. Like me he comes from Aleppo but for the past 6 years he has been with his mother and brother living in Istanbul. Mohammad is 18 years old.

We became friends through Facebook where he saw that I was involved with many refugees in Athens and in Samos. He had read my story in the Samos Chronicles. As a young gay man he turned to me for advice and help which I was happy to give. Over the past six months we have talked a lot and a good friendship has developed. I know that he trusts me.

Continue reading A New Nightmare: Picked up in the Aegean and Returned to Syria →

News Digest

Turkey’s Syrian refugees hot-topic issue in upcoming election

Via AlJazeera – As the Turkish economy slows down and people are getting ready to elect new leadership, the presence of millions of Syrian refugees living in the country returns to the fore.

Today marks World Refugee Day, when the plight of migrants is highlighted. More than 16 million people have been forcibly displaced from their homes in the last year.

Turkey hosts more refugees than any other country, and the upcoming election has highlighted the issue of more than four million Syrian refugees in the country. They have generally been welcomed, but as the economy slows, they fear they will bear the fallout.

Click here to see the video-report from Gaziantep

News Digest

30,000 Syrians eligible to vote in Turkish elections: PM

Via Hurriyet Daily News – Some 30,000 Syrians are eligible to vote in the June 24 elections in Turkey. Speaking to journalists in the western province of İzmir, Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım announced “around 30,000 Syrians have received Turkish citizenship so far.”

“They have the right to vote but I do not know how many of them will use that right. They are our guests and they will return to their country,” the prime minister said. He stressed that the Syrians in Turkey “must obey the Turkish law.” “If they do not, then we will take them by their hand back to where they came from,” said Yıldırım.

Continue reading 30,000 Syrians eligible to vote in Turkish elections: PM →

News Digest

Turkey’s Syrian population grows to 4.2 percent

Via Ahval – The number of Syrians registered in Turkey grew by over 600,000 between the end of 2016 and the end of 2017, making them 4.2 percent of Turkey’s population, according to figures from the country’s Directorate of Migration Management quoted by left-wing newspaper BirGün.

The figure increased from 14 thousand in 2012 to 2.8 million in 2016 and has risen again to 3.4 million in 2017.

Continue reading Turkey’s Syrian population grows to 4.2 percent →

Reporting on the Turkish-EU Border Regime