Children without warm clothes in the winter; women left to fend for themselves as their husbands work at half the local pay. For 2.2 million Syrian refugees in Turkey, it's a lost generation.
By TAMAR DRESSLERAn elderly Syrian women sits outside a mosque in Suleymaniye, begging for money from passersby(photo credit: TAMAR DRESSLER)
Aisha, an 11-year-old Syrian girl, pockets the change she managed to beg from passersby on the street in Istanbul. Temperatures are around 5°C and Aisha is dressed in a ragged oversized coat, sandals and socks.She’s one of the tens of thousands of refugee children who are forced to help their families by working or begging while they wait to make the crossing to Greece. And it is a long wait, up to two years according to NGOs working among the migrant community in Turkey.Nearly 2.2 million refugees have streamed into Turkey since 2011, fleeing the war in Syria. They live in tent cities on the Turkish border and in the capital, Istanbul. While the country tries to curb the flow of migrants traveling to Europe, Syrian refugees continue to make the perilous journey to Greece, paying smugglers and risking their lives in flimsy boats.On November 30, the European Union struck a deal with Turkey to help stem the flow of migrants entering Europe. The deal includes an initial package of €3 billion – meant to increase the living standard of refugees in Turkey – a visa-waiver for Turkish citizens traveling to parts of Europe and the possibility of renewed talks for Turkish membership to the EU.Aisha, an 11-year-old Syrian girl, begs for money from passersby and drivers in Istanbul (photo credit: TAMAR DRESSLER)What awaits the refugees residing in Turkey? Anna Tuscon, a journalist living in Istanbul, quit her job six months ago. She now sits in a small shop in Istanbul that has been converted into an activity center for Syrian refugee children and their parents.“I was covering the story for a long time, in the camps and on the border, and I saw the impact of what is happening in Syria. I was certain the international community would step in, but I saw no response. We, the journalists, were telling the story and nothing was happening. Syria is finished; the only thing left to do now is pick up the pieces.”Since 2011, more than four million people have become refugees, fleeing the civil war in Syria. While the public’s eye has turned to Europe, where nearly a million refugees arrived in 2014-15, the majority of refugees are in Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon. According to UN reports, an additional 7.6 million people are displaced inside Syria, many of them in difficult circumstances, without shelter or a reliable food source and at times caught in the middle of the fighting between forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad and the opposition. Many are in locations that are hard to reach, and NGOs have no access to provide aid.The converted shop where Tuscon sits is now a learning center for about 50 refugee children aged four to 12. Many of them are not enrolled in schools at all, as they do not speak Turkish and cannot follow the curriculum. Some are enrolled and attend the center for help with language and homework, which their parents cannot provide. Twenty more children receive scholarships from private donors and are enrolled in private Arabic-speaking schools. The staff are a mix of local and foreign volunteers.As Tuscon speaks, a class of eight-to-12-year-olds assembles in the center, and a young Syrian woman approaches her cautiously, asking for some money owed to her cousin for some crafts she has done as part of the center’s support group for women.“A lot of men leave for Europe, and then, once they have settled, will send for their wife and children,” Tuscon says. “In the meantime, they [the women] are struggling here to make ends meet. Some refugees were well off in Syria, some were very poor, but the crisis levels everyone [makes everyone equal].”The NGO runs a small crafts project and the little cash the women receive for their work barely keeps their households afloat.Although the goals of the small NGO are aimed at education for children and adults, the volunteers find themselves collecting winter clothes and blankets.“It gets really cold in winter, and many of the refugees have no warm clothes or blankets. Just this week we brought in a carload of clothes and blankets and it was gone within a few hours.”There are 600,000 Syrian refugees in Istanbul alone. According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, over 51 percent of asylum-seekers in Greece and Europe are Syrians. Nearly a million more refugees of different nationalities, mainly Afghan and Iraqi, live in Turkey, and one-tenth of the 2.2 million Syrian refugees in Turkey live in refugee camps.Run as far as we can Ayman, a former schoolteacher in Damascus, escaped to Istanbul eight months ago.A Syrian man carries a load for his daily employer in Suleymaniye, Istanbul. Syrians are not allowed to work legally (photo credit: TAMAR DRESSLER)“We don’t want to stay in the camps on the border; it is like a prison for us. Some are run well and some have very hard conditions, but there is no future there at all. They are too close to Syria, and we want to run as far as we can, not stay here and wait to see if the war crosses the border."“We Syrians are, for the most part, educated people and we want a better, safer life for our children,” he continues.“That is why we come to Istanbul, even though it is illegal for us to work. That is why we take to the boats and risk death and injury, with our children, for a safer place in Europe. You would do the same.”Ayman has been scraping by in Istanbul with his wife and daughter while his older, married daughter is still in Damascus.“I don’t know if she will be able to cross the border, I hope so. We wait for her.”How much will Ayman pay for a place in a rubber boat headed for Kos or Lesbos? Anywhere between €750 and €1,500 per person.Ayman works at a local factory and earns wages that are much lower than his Turkish co-workers, about half. The Turkish government does not allow migrants to work, trying to force them back into the camps.There are 22 controlled compounds located on the border where refugees receive food and housing in tents or temporary housing units. But almost anyone who can will try and leave for Istanbul or for the shores of Bodrum, to try and make the crossing to Greece, to start the journey into the safety of the EU.Nobody wants 2.2 million refugees M. is a prominent figure in the business community in Istanbul. He has some friends in the Syrian refugee community, mainly upper-class businessmen who were the first to leave the wartorn country and were able to liquidate some of their assets and start anew in Istanbul.Despite the friendship and understanding, M. is certain that the majority of Turks do not favor the refugees.“There are so many of them. Most of them have nothing; they work for meager wages and compete for employment with low-income Turks."“I feel for them and I know what they are running from, but how long can Turkey contain them, even with the funds promised from the EU? “No country in the world wants 2.2 [million] refugees, not even Germany. They come from a different culture.”Turkey’s entire population is estimated at nearly 80 million.Abandones houses in the outskirts of Suleymaniye. Locals say homeless drug addicts and impoverished Syrian refugees make this their home (photo credit: TAMAR DRESSLER)Send the men over first Aitor Zabalgogeazk is from Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders), which is working in Syria and on the border in Turkey.“A survey conducted by several NGOs and agencies, the International Blue Crescent, and others, shows that while in the border provinces the majority are elders, women and children, in the coastal cities and Istanbul the balance shows many more men, up to 65%. That is probably because they are tasked to get their bearings on the ground, look for jobs or resources or act as a first person risking the trip to Europe.” The women are left to fend for themselves, making life and the journey later on much more difficult.Losing a generation Many of the Syrian refugees rent homes in Suleymaniye, a crowded neighborhood on the shore of Istanbul.The streets are small and cramped, and many houses are boarded up with cardboard or wooden planks instead of glass windows. Smoke wafts from makeshift chimneys.Akif, a young journalist, reveals that this is one way to distinguish the houses of the Syrian refugees.“We use gas to heat our homes, but they have no money for that. They burn paper, wood, plastic, anything to keep warm. The landlords here will not rent to Turks; they know refugees have no choice and will pay even for these rundown houses.”The ones that are better off rent and open shops in Suleymaniye, where only Arabic is heard; cafes and small restaurants serve hummus and Syrian cuisine.The shops on the streets offer flimsy life-jackets of all sizes for the journey to Greece, between four and seven kilometers by sea but a journey that has already claimed the lives of at least 3,500 refugees by drowning.Old men and women beg on street corners, many refugees squat in the rickety houses and boys as young as 12 work at menial labor to support their families.A refugee who identifies only as Abu Abdallah says, “There is no future for us anymore. In Syria, about 99% of our children were enrolled in school; here they are beggars. We are losing a generation, either here or in Europe; these children are paying the price of the war in Syria."“This could have been avoided if the international community had stepped in in time and stopped the slaughter in Syria.”Estimates of deaths in the conflict vary widely, with figures, according to activist groups opposed to the Assad regime, ranging from 140,200 to 340,125.Can Turkey curb the flow? A source in , who wished to remain anonymous so as not to strain the delicate work procedure with the Turkish government, told the Magazine that he is skeptical about Turkey’s ability to deter refugees from crossing to Greece.“I cannot foresee the future, but I believe we will see a rise in human trafficking. They will charge more money, but you cannot stop people from trying to reach a better, safer place. They know it’s a hard journey, to Greece and in Europe, and yet they keep coming. We are concerned about trafficking and the toll it will take on the lives of these people.”The promised benefits from the EU, the €3b., the promise that the EU would probably resettle hundreds of thousands of refugees in Europe directly from Turkey, a visa deal between Turkey and the 28 EU countries and a possibility of EU access talks for Turkey are a huge incentive for the country, but EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said that Turkey still needs to show progress in the areas of human rights and media freedom.In March 2015, some EU countries proposed building and operating processing centers within Turkey, to allow the possible future relocation of refugees from Turkey directly to Europe rather than having refugees risk the perilous and illegal journey.