Turkey has started temporarily accommodating thousands of Syrians on the Syrian side of the borderline as it struggles to cope with a rising wave of refugees.
At the least 2,000 people fleeing ferocity in Syria were prevented from acceding Turkey overnight at one of several unofficial borderline crossings in the southern province of Hatay, a Turkish official and witnesses told.
“We have run out of space to house these people. We’re working to make protections and when these are accomplished we’ll let these people across,” the official told Reuters on circumstance of anonymity.
He told the refugees were being handed food and humanitarian assistance through the barbed-wire fence which marks much of Turkey’s 900-km (560-mile) borderline with Syria, and through which tens of thousands of Syrians have scrambled over the past 17 months.
The official told he hoped the refugees would be allowed to cross later on Sunday.
The number of Syrian refugees in Turkey has nearly doubled the past 2 months to more than 80,000 and Ankara has already told it is fighting to cope.
Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu told this week Turkey could run out of space if the number went above 100,000 and advised the UN might need to create a “safe zone” inside Syria.
In total, more than 200,000 Syrians have poured into neighbouring countries since the beginning of the conflict, already exceeding a United Nations year-end estimate of 185,000, and Turkey, which has seen the highest refugee inflow, is growing frustrated at what it sees as a slow international reaction.
“The UN and others are commending Turkey and neighbouring countries for doing a good job housing the refugees but all these comments are really covering a crisis,” a second Turkish official told Reuters.
“Our potentialities as a host country are being strained … We’re now fighting to cope,” told the official, who declined to be named so he could speak freely on the subject.
He told while several countries had supplied some humanitarian aid such as blankets and tents, the overall response had been slow. He told in spite of pledges being made, Turkey had so far not accepted any financial aid.
Many of the latest arrivals have been housed in schools and sports centres but, with the academic term due to begin in a matter of weeks, this isn’t a lasting solution.
Turkey is rushing to construct several new camps but refugees are arriving faster than they can be built. This has led to congestion, stimulating disturbances in some camps as tempers, exacerbated by blazing summertime temperatures, flare over shortages of food and water.
Officials also say the real number of Syrians which have fled their homes over the past seventeen months is higher than the official figures as thousands of wealthier refugees have arrived across official borderlines and are renting accommodation in cities.
Ankara fears a mass inflow on the scale seen during the 1991 Iran-Iraq War when 500,000 people poured into Turkey, and tells that would be one factor that could drive Turkey to build a “buffer zone” inside Syria.
But Ankara is reluctant to act unilaterally on what would basically amount to a military intercession.
The idea of a buffer district has also acquired little traction elsewhere and Ankara has been progressively vocal in its frustration at the United Nations Security Council and its failure to come to a united stance over Syria.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said the Security Council’s failure was indirectly supporting oppression in Syria, and criticised vetoes by China and Russia of UN resolutions as a “fiasco”.
