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On Friday, Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) said that it needs the world’s help in “sharing the burden” of over 1.2 million Syrian refugees it hosts, especially those not living in refugee camps.
Several hundreds of thousands of Syrians have fled civil war in their country and sought refuge in neighboring Turkey for the past three years after then-Prime Minister and currently President-elect Recep Tayyip Erdogan had announced an open-door policy.
According to the AFAD, around 285,000 Syrians are now living as refugees in camps across southeastern Turkey. However, over 912,000 Syrians are living outside such camps in cities across the country, the AFAD added, saying that their presence has increasingly become a source of tension with the locals.
Fuat Oktay, President of the AFAD, told reporters that the international community needs to do more to help Turkey cope with the burden.
“The international community has to come to an understanding that they should become part of the solution.They (the international community) should start sharing the burden”, he said.
According to the AFAD, Turkey has spent around $.3.5 billion to help the refugees but has received only $224 million worth of international assistance.
Oktay also said that other nations could help Turkey build, and even run a few refugee camps. They could also build schools, a priority right now since over a quarter of the refugees are young and of school age, thereby ensuring that they are not destined for the streets.
Tensions rose between Syrian refugees living outside camps and local Turks as violent protests took place in the city of Gaziantep. Reportedly, around 2,000 Syrian refugees were then moved to refugee camps; Oktay, however, insisted that none of the refugees were forced to move if they were within the confines of the law.