Yesterday a Catalan news portal ara.cat published an article by Carles Palacio, our colleague who joined out trip to Turkey this year.
Carles described the situation of Syrian and Kurdish refugees living in the rural area of Turgutlu town (north-east of Izmir), who are often exploited by the local farmers. They pick up grapes and tomatoes for many hours each day, in a blazing sun, and often being paid little (or sometimes no at all). These people were too poor to make their way further, or simply didn’t want to go too far away from their homeland. Some also escaped the militarized refugee camps as they were not free there.
Refugees in Turgutlu area live in a very poor conditions, in provisional tents made out of jute or plastic bags. As far as we know there is only one person helping out these people by bringing them, from time to time as donations let him, some basic food as rice, oil, flour, tea, etc. His name is Andrew Murano and you can find him on Facebook and support his noble project!
Here is the link to the article: http://m.ara.cat/internacional/esclaus-Turgutlu_0_1657034378.html
The last days of our stay in Turkey we dedicated to visiting a few refugee camps in the province of Izmir . Although there are some official militarized camps in Turkey, some refugees prefer to stay by their own in the countryside, to work and sustain themselves independently from Turkish administration. The official camps offer shelter and (bad) food, but those are also dangerous places, especially for kids and women. These camps resemble detention centers, as people are not free there, cannot freely go in and out. The “camps” we visited are informal and illegal. Now, in the harvest season, Turkish farmers let the refugees set up the tents on their land, some men can also find jobs in picking up tomatoes or grapes. The working conditions are harsh, the daily shift normally starts around 5-6 in the morning, there is a 2 hours break around noon and then work continues until around 8pm, most of the time in a blazing sun. An efficient worker can earn this way around 600 Turkish Liras (approx. 200€) per month. Refugees’ tents have access to running water and electricity, as they normally can connect to the farm infrastructure. The problem are the tents: they are not waterproof, so as soon as the rainy season comes, the people will not be protected from water and cold. But this is still 2-3 months ahead, now the most important is to pick up as much as possible, although the year was very dry and not many tomatoes grew in the fields, and the wages are also low.
We made a trip to the camps twice, loading the car each time with flour, sugar, oil, and tea (approx. value 600€ in total). As far as we learned there are only 2 persons helping refugees in this area, 2 guys making trips and visiting different camps each time. Although many refugees believe that they will go back to Syria very soon, they will probably be forced to move to the militarized camps as soon as cold and wet season comes. Those with savings will probably move to Izmir and rent apartments there, as other families that we met last week. Anyway, it seems as it is the most vulnerable group of Syrian refugees, with their future unclear and low chances to improve their status, unless they are able to go back to their home country soon.
If you would like to support refugees living in these camps please contact Andrew Murano who is working in the field right now or donate via this blog.
Loading the car with basic food for refugees (Izmir)
Last Thursday we went to the western coast of Turkey, north from Izmir. We drove the coast between the villages of Dikili and Ayvalik looking for traces of refugees who, until just a month ago, had been trying their luck in getting to Europe, boarding dingy and pontoons. The Greek island Lesbos is just 15km away and it seems easily reachable, especially on a summer day, with no wind and waves. However, so far over 3000 people died trying to make the passage, drowning in freezing winter waters or being crashed on the rocks after they lost steering ability or were pushed too hard by the wind.
As the EU-Turkey deal aims to maximally decrease the number of people leaving the country, Turkish government deployed several armed boats to support the coast guard units. We saw a corvette and other combat boat as well as several smaller units moving around the coast. A man that we met on one of the beautiful deserted beaches told us that since one month ago he hasn’t seen any boat departing, while before there were sometimes dozens per week, all along the coast from Bodrum to Ayvalik, heading to Kos, Samos, Chios, Lesbos…
Close to Aivalik, next to the summer resorts and sunbathing people we found some leftovers reminding about those recent journeys: torn pieces of pontoons, life jackets, shoes, old fireplaces… It was really hard to believe that this picturesque place had witnessed so many human dramas in the last few months…
Abandoned life jacket on the western coast of Turkey
Abandoned or lost personal objects of the refugees
Torn dinghy – Lesvos island (Greece) in the background
Dear Friends,
One week ago I arrived with a group of international activists to Turkey in order to learn about the refugees’ situation after the EU-Turkey deal meant to end a chaotic migration taking place for more than one year already.
We first arrived to Istanbul where we met with the founder of the Yusra Community Center, an organization helping Syrian children and women by organizing English and Turkish classes, library, art workshops, and photography classes. As Istanbul is huge and the refugees are dispersed throughout the city, there are not many organizations helping them on a daily basis, Yusra is one of the very few we found.
On Sunday we moved to Izmir where many refugees used to depart from on their way to Europe. 3 Greek islands are relatively close making it easier, however also very dangerous, to reach them by boat. In Izmir we met volunteers from Revi, an organization based on the work of Turkish and Syrian long term volunteers. Revi has opened a school which serves also as a daily center for Syrian kids in Basmane district. During the academic year Revi organizes classes of English and Arabic, art and dancing classes, etc. As we arrived during a holiday period, the activity of Revi is reduced, the classes are suspended for 3 weeks and Revi’s main activity in this period is visiting Syrian families that are in need, offering them direct help according to their needs and available funds. Revi also provides material for knitting, as one of their projects is aimed on women being able to earn by making simple knitted objects to be sold later on. If you’d like to directly support Revi and Syrian families from Basmane, consider donating through their website: supportrevi.org.
As we found out, in Istanbul and Izmir most of the refugees live in rented apartments. Syrians are mostly poor but many are able to find jobs. Their housing conditions are very modest but decent, with running water and sewer system. Many families don’t have fridges, but in general their living conditions are fine.
During the last few days we’ve been visiting Syrian families in their homes, bringing them food and hygienic items,learning about their situation, specific problems they encounter while living in Turkey, and listening to their stories, sometimes very moving. Once we met a family consisted of 3 sisters who are single mothers, share a small house and raise 16 of their children. The women’s husbands were either killed or detained in Syria. One of the kids is deaf and needs specialist attention, however he was bounced back from the Turkish hospital. Fortunately Revi managed to find and pay a salary to a Syrian therapist, who will take care of the boy.
As far as we learned, migrants from Syria do not have refugee status in Turkey. It means that they do not receive any special treatment or protection. It is tolerated if they work, but the employers often take advantage of refugees’ situation and make people work long hours or simply don’t pay at the end of the month. Also the landlords sometimes suddenly raise rents forcing families to pay even double from one day to another. Additionally, the refugees don’t have same rights in accessing the public health system or other services available for Turkish citizens. We heard people complaining about being bounced off from the hospitals, although they were I in serious condition. Another serious problem is that many kids don’t go to school… This happens for several reasons, sometimes it’s a language barrier, lack of safe mean of transportation, long distance to the nearest school, etc. This is really worrying as many of these kids will probably grow up in Turkey…
To sum up, many Syrian refugees that we met can live a more or less stable life, however it’s rather a vegetation, without any perspective for change in a near future. Probably also that’s why many people dream of leaving – either to Europe or going back to Syria. This will not be possible though in a short term perspective.
Refugee Crisis in Europe 