Refugee camps like prisons
Refugee camps like prisons
Visiting the refugee camps in Hatay is perhaps the best way to tell the dimension of the events in Syria and the circumstances of the people. There are about 8500 Syrian refugees, most of them women and children. They are almost like people in prison.
Turkish gendarmes are constantly keeping guard around these camps which are surrounded with wire fences. The constraint applied at the camp is equally good with prison conditions.
The camps at Syrian border have been changed into a camp-type prison just like one in any of third world countries. In exchange for their lives, a slice of bread and little cooked rice, refugees are questioned for hours and give a testimony.
Accompanied by gendarmes, refugees are brought to the camps at the border which were set up by Turkish red crescent, one 600 meter long, other two about five kilometers. The main gate of the border has been closed for being in the region of Syrian Alewis.
According to the figures given Turkish authorities, at least 8500 refugees have been settled in the camps in Hatay. 90 percent of refugees are women and children because the men population living in areas near the border with Turkey do not leave the country.
Syrian refugees are interrogated by the Foreign Branch of Police Department or plainclothes policemen. The refugee soldiers who escape from the Syrian army and cross the border are in particular questioned for hours by military-expert intelligence officers.
Refugees are searched and their mobile phones are confiscated to prevent their getting in touch with someone. A volunteer psychologist in one of the camps tells that he hid his mobile phone, scared of the many police officers in each corner of the camp. The psychologist, requesting not to be named, was dismissed from the camp for talking to refugees about the situation in Syria.
The refugees in the camps, where health support is at the lowest level, have to stand in a queue even to go to the toilet and the people in tents are in a much greater number than the normal capacity.
Academician S.A., who could enter the camp after great efforts, says the followings about the camps; "People sleep in an open field. When I arrived in the camp, people had sunk in mud up to their necks because of the raining. The refugees seemed as if enslaved in these camps."
The refugees are also deprived of their visitation rights. People out of the camp can only see their first degree relatives in the camps and the conversations during the visit are allowed and recorded only in company with a police officer who knows Arabic.
While a negative response is given to the demand of visiting camps, despite all the efforts given by Amnesty International, the aid materials collected by the Muslim Brotherhood were delivered to the camps under the supervision of civil policemen only.
Arab television Al Jazeera was allowed into the camp for a few minutes only to shoot a group of people chanting propaganda slogans in favor of Turkey.
Contrary to at least five thousand Syrians including soldiers escaping from the army, people at Syrian side of the border are giving a great struggle at the cost of their lives for not coming to prison camps in Turkey.
Translation: Berna Ozgencil
Turkish gendarmes are constantly keeping guard around these camps which are surrounded with wire fences. The constraint applied at the camp is equally good with prison conditions.
The camps at Syrian border have been changed into a camp-type prison just like one in any of third world countries. In exchange for their lives, a slice of bread and little cooked rice, refugees are questioned for hours and give a testimony.
Accompanied by gendarmes, refugees are brought to the camps at the border which were set up by Turkish red crescent, one 600 meter long, other two about five kilometers. The main gate of the border has been closed for being in the region of Syrian Alewis.
According to the figures given Turkish authorities, at least 8500 refugees have been settled in the camps in Hatay. 90 percent of refugees are women and children because the men population living in areas near the border with Turkey do not leave the country.
Syrian refugees are interrogated by the Foreign Branch of Police Department or plainclothes policemen. The refugee soldiers who escape from the Syrian army and cross the border are in particular questioned for hours by military-expert intelligence officers.
Refugees are searched and their mobile phones are confiscated to prevent their getting in touch with someone. A volunteer psychologist in one of the camps tells that he hid his mobile phone, scared of the many police officers in each corner of the camp. The psychologist, requesting not to be named, was dismissed from the camp for talking to refugees about the situation in Syria.
The refugees in the camps, where health support is at the lowest level, have to stand in a queue even to go to the toilet and the people in tents are in a much greater number than the normal capacity.
Academician S.A., who could enter the camp after great efforts, says the followings about the camps; "People sleep in an open field. When I arrived in the camp, people had sunk in mud up to their necks because of the raining. The refugees seemed as if enslaved in these camps."
The refugees are also deprived of their visitation rights. People out of the camp can only see their first degree relatives in the camps and the conversations during the visit are allowed and recorded only in company with a police officer who knows Arabic.
While a negative response is given to the demand of visiting camps, despite all the efforts given by Amnesty International, the aid materials collected by the Muslim Brotherhood were delivered to the camps under the supervision of civil policemen only.
Arab television Al Jazeera was allowed into the camp for a few minutes only to shoot a group of people chanting propaganda slogans in favor of Turkey.
Contrary to at least five thousand Syrians including soldiers escaping from the army, people at Syrian side of the border are giving a great struggle at the cost of their lives for not coming to prison camps in Turkey.
Translation: Berna Ozgencil
