{"id":341,"date":"2011-08-29T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-08-29T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","slug":"","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/?p=341","title":{"rendered":"Syrian Refugees in Turkey Need International Protection"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nEMHRN mission to camps: <\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

\nSyrian Refugees in Turkey Need International Protection<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

\nCopenhagen 29 August 2011, 
\n<\/span>An EMHRN delegation conducted a mission August 22-28 to assess the
\nsituation of Syrian refugees in camps in southern Turkey, and met with
\nrefugees, Turkish NGOs and officials and other stake-holders. The mission has
\nconcluded that while it is appreciative of Turkey’s efforts to shelter the
\nSyrians fleeing violence in their country, it urges the Turkish government to
\ngrant UNHCR full access to the camps and to allow the Syrians to apply for
\nrefugee status with full protection according to international conventions.\n<\/p>\n

\nThousands of Syrian men, women and children have been
\ncrossing into Turkey, escaping military and security attacks on their towns and
\nvillages following anti-government demonstrations taking place since March
\n2011. Most of the refugees are from the town of Jisr al-Shughour and
\nsurrounding villages, which were nearly emptied after the Syrian government
\npublicly threatened to storm them. More have recently arrived from Latakia, and
\nHama. Today there are approximately 7,000 Syrian refugees housed in six camps
\nspread across the Hatay border province.\n<\/p>\n

\nThe EMHRN continues to strongly denounce the Syrian
\ngovernment’s human rights violations against demonstrators, and urges it to
\nstop its heavy crackdown.\n<\/p>\n

\nMany refugees arrived with no passports or other form of
\nidentity, and those that EMHRN interviewed said they were well treated by the
\nTurkish military at the informal border crossings, which registered their
\ndetails and transferred them to special Turkish Red Crescent-run camps. Turkey
\nhas continued to allow its borders to remain open to the Syrians, who do not
\nneed visas, and has provided them to varying degrees with shelter, food,
\nmedical facilities and even children’s playgrounds.\n<\/p>\n

\nThe Turkish government considers these refugees as “Guests,”
\na status that is open to interpretation and lacks the international protection
\nthat the UNHCR can provide. UNHCR has not been allowed regular access to the
\ncamps, and EMHRN learned that only those few Syrian refugees who managed with
\ndifficulty to reach the organization’s Ankara office were registered as asylum
\nseekers. As the Syrian conflict continues to intensify, refugees told EMHRN
\nthey did not feel safe enough to return home in the foreseeable future.\n<\/p>\n

\nThe EMHRN therefore strongly urges the Turkish government to
\ngrant the UNHCR unrestricted access to the camps, and to allow for refugee
\nregistration of those who wish to do so, in accordance with international
\nconventions. Turkey has ratified the 1951 Geneva Convention but limits it to
\ncitizens of Council of Europe members.\n<\/p>\n

\nTurkey has not allowed media visits to the camps, except for
\nrestricted access in June, nor visits by international and local human rights
\norganizations, including the Coordination for Refugee Rights (CRR- a coalition
\nof seven local and international human rights groups).\n<\/p>\n

\nThe EMHRN urges Turkey to reconsider its policies and,
\nprovided security safeguards are met, allow media access as well as oversight
\nby international and local human rights organizations into how the camps are
\nrun. This would meet refugee demands, especially that some of them pointed to
\ncramped conditions, water and sanitation problems, and sometimes inadequate
\nmedical attention.\n<\/p>\n

\nFinally, the EMHRN would urge the Turkish government to
\nintroduce clear regulations allowing the refugees daily trips outside the
\ncamps, as these have so far been granted arbitrarily. Many told EMHRN that
\nalthough their basic needs were being met, they felt they were being held in a
\nprison, which is likely to exacerbate tension within the camps.\n<\/p>\n

\nA report from the mission will be available shortly.\n<\/p>\n

\nFor more information please contact\n<\/p>\n

\nRim Hajji, Deputy Coordinator Migration and Asylum\/for
\nArabic, French and English \/Email: EMHRN.ma@euromedrights.net ,Cell phone:
\n212655652443 +<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>\u00a1<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n \n<\/p>\n

\n  <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Copenhagen 29 August 2011, 
\n<\/span>An EMHRN delegation conducted a mission August 22-28 to assess the
\nsituation of Syrian refugees in camps in southern Turkey, and met with
\nrefugees, Turkish NGOs and officials and other stake-holders. The mission has
\nconcluded that while it is appreciative of Turkey’s efforts to shelter the
\nSyrians fleeing violence in their country, it urges the Turkish government to
\ngrant UNHCR full access to the camps and to allow the Syrians to apply for
\nrefugee status with full protection according to international conventions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}