Anger towards Turkey’s Syrian refugees grows after earthquake

By Robert Murray Last updated Feb 16, 2023

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KILIS, Turkey —

It was on the third day after the devastating earthquake demolished his house and nearly killed him and his household that Basel, a 31-year-old Syrian refugee dwelling in Turkey, was capable of finding an empty plot of land to pitch a tent as a brief shelter for his household.

However the respite didn’t final.

“Turkish individuals within the space got here and informed us they didn’t need us right here — that we had been in charge for the earthquake and that we weren’t welcome to remain,” mentioned Basel, who gave solely his first identify to keep away from harassment. “They began breaking apart the tent, shouting at us till we left.”

He and his household had been the victims of a rising wave of resentment towards the greater than 3.6 million Syrians who’ve fled their homeland throughout its ongoing, 12-year-old civil struggle and settled throughout the border in Turkey, which hosts extra Syrian refugees than every other nation.

People stand in line for bowls of rice and soup.

Greater than 1.6 million of them stay in areas hit exhausting by the magnitude 7.8 earthquake that shook southern Turkey and northern Syria final week. Because the loss of life toll climbs previous 40,000 and hundreds of thousands face homelessness in what the World Well being Group calls the area’s worst pure catastrophe in a century, anti-refugee sentiment in Turkey has spiked, pushed by politicians hoping to capitalize on public hostility earlier than common elections meant to be held in Could.

In latest days, with individuals’s grief morphing to fury, Syrians have grow to be the goal of a misinformation marketing campaign accusing them of looting destroyed houses and stealing support or blaming them as the explanation for the cataclysm hitting Turkey.

The principle driver of the marketing campaign, observers say, is Umit Ozdag, a far-right politician who has lengthy pushed to expel Syrians from the nation. Within the aftermath of the earthquake, he has pushed vitriol-filled messages on social media characterizing their presence as an insidious risk to nationwide safety and arranged marches to expel Syrians from shelters. In the meantime, anti-refugee slogans corresponding to “Syrians are now not welcome” are proliferating on billboards, in conversations and on tv discuss reveals and social media.

The result’s escalating harassment towards refugees throughout the nation.

Within the port metropolis of Mersin, Syrians at a shelter arrange in a ladies’ dormitory had been kicked out to make manner for Turkish residents; witnesses mentioned they had been bused to the town of Adana, 40 miles away, and dumped on the road. Authorities in Mugla province warned refugees that they might be given no help and that they need to search assist in different provinces. Even Syrians attempting to assist in rescues of quake survivors have been assaulted.

Displaced Syrians stand in line near a row of white tents.

That’s what occurred to Usama and his associates in Antakya, one of many hardest-hit cities. On Friday, they had been transporting the physique of a buddy they’d recovered from the wreckage and one other buddy’s electrical bicycle once they stopped to get soup at a charity road kitchen.

Volunteers requested them the place they had been from, and known as the police once they mentioned they had been Syrians. Earlier than officers had an opportunity to research, a crowd fashioned round them, with half attempting to beat them up whereas the opposite half tried to guard them, mentioned Usama, who gave solely his first identify for concern of reprisals. Police lastly got here, put them in handcuffs and took them away; they had been launched hours later.

“Individuals are hurting, and you’ll’t blame them. And naturally somebody stealing just isn’t a simple matter on this time, however nonetheless, I by no means felt this stage of racism earlier than,” Usama mentioned.

Many Syrians take pains to level out that authorities have supplied providers for them and that they’ve acquired help from Turkish associates and colleagues.

“My employer gave us our wage immediately and even despatched us heating provides after we had been within the shelter,” mentioned Mustafa, a 31-year-old janitor right here in Kilis, who additionally declined to offer his final identify.

However few dispute that anti-Syrian sentiment has been a rising concern within the nation for some years. When civil struggle erupted in Syria in 2011, Turkey grew to become the first vacation spot for these fleeing the violence. Accommodating them grew to become a central coverage of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s authorities, which has spent $40 billion to deal with the refugees and supply them entry to employment, schooling and healthcare.

Children hold empty bowls as they wait in line.

For many Syrians, Turkey was imagined to be a brief cease, both as a manner station on the highway to asylum in Europe or a spot to attend till the scenario at house improved sufficient for them to return. However with European measures to limit migration, and with the battle caught in a stalemate, many have stayed on.

Because the Turkish financial system slumped badly in recent times, the refugee challenge grew to become a significant political battleground, with the opposition seeing it as a strategy to topple the long-serving Erdogan.

As elections close to, the dominant message of the three main opposition events is that of “sending Syrians again,” mentioned Begum Basdas, a human rights and migration researcher on the Heart for Elementary Rights on the Hertie College in Berlin. She added that, lengthy earlier than the Feb. 6 earthquake, individuals had been “completely pissed off” with the federal government’s lack of ability to convey a few sturdy answer.

The refugees themselves grew to become a handy scapegoat, Basdas mentioned — “the basic state of affairs of not truly focusing on authorities however those that are weak as a result of they’re simpler targets.”

A woman balances several bowls as she stands in a food line near children.

Authorities laws meant to limit Syrians’ motion round Turkey are compounding the group’s issues. Syrians are usually prohibited from leaving the cities they’re registered in with out permission from provincial authorities. Though that injunction has principally been lifted due to the quake, Istanbul stays off limits, eradicating an essential possibility for the various Syrians fleeing the quake zone, mentioned Taha Ghazi, an Istanbul-based refugee advocate who’s Syrian however holds Turkish citizenship.

“Istanbul has the very best share of family members” of Syrian refugees, he mentioned. “So what’s the use? What did the Syrian refugee profit from permitting him to go to a different province?”

The federal government has additionally blocked refugees from going into Syria’s Turkish-controlled northern territories and allowed solely Syrian corpses, licensed by Turkish hospitals and issued an accompanying allow signed by the regional governor, to be transported throughout the border.

“The allow, it took us two days to get it,” mentioned Samer, a 32-year-old Syrian refugee from war-torn Aleppo who was delivering the our bodies of two kids — one in all them 5 years previous — to their family members close to the Bab al Hawa border crossing.

Others are grappling with not possible decisions, corresponding to Samar Bawaba, who sat along with her six kids at the back of a truck amongst burlap luggage of rice and different provides.

Their home in Kahramanmaras, near the epicenter of the quake, was now rubble, she mentioned, and her husband had been deported three months earlier than by Turkish authorities. With nowhere to show, the household needed to return to Syria, however doing so would imply giving up their Turkish short-term settlement allow; with out it they wouldn’t have the ability to cross again into Turkey.

“I’ve nothing right here. What am I going to do? I can’t keep right here on this truck or in a tent,” she mentioned. “I do know going again to Syria isn’t simple, however what different answer is there?”

Displaced Syrians stand in line for food next to a row of tents.

Erdogan has repeatedly vowed that his authorities would start rebuilding shortly and pay as much as one yr of lease for many who don’t want to stay in tents. However there’s no readability if that would come with Syrians, Basdas mentioned.

“Will the state and support organizations present sustainable housing to all individuals affected by the earthquake with out discrimination? There’s no sustainable answer for anyone. How can we handle internally displaced individuals in the long run?” she mentioned.

“This impacts everybody, however in these conditions, people who find themselves already extraordinarily weak, whether or not that’s kids, girls, LGBTQ, refugees or migrants” are much more in danger, Basdas mentioned.

Even in loss of life, Syrians may additionally be forgotten, warns Ghazi, the Istanbul-based refugee advocate. Undocumented refugees, who make up a good portion of the Syrians in Turkey, don’t get recorded in official casualty figures, consultants say.

“Probably the most affected areas that had been struck are poor neighborhoods with older buildings, and people are typically those with refugees,” Ghazi mentioned.

“I concern that the very best share of deaths shall be amongst Syrians.”