Solidarity with the urban poor in İstanbul under the roof of Tarlabaşı Solidarity Home

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"Refugees who had to enter the country by illegal means through Van and Ağrı provinces lose their lives in the mountains in winter. Dozens of dead bodies appear with the arrival of spring and summer. Just like the dead bodies they are looking for in Van today...

"We try to support the refugees who somehow entered Turkey through Van, Ağrı or other border gates and dream of migrating to Europe. It is not even certain whether several of them will survive the next couple of hours..."

It is how Muhammed Sıddık Yaşar summarizes the situation of refugees who try to survive in Turkey. Yaşar is the Field Coordinator of Tarlabaşı Solidarity Association in İstanbul. Especially since the 1980s, Tarlabaşı has been home to the urban poor in Beyoğlu.

Yaşar says that the association is now working for a "solidarity home" in Tarlabaşı, a neighborhood also densely populated by refugees:

"When we started to support people in Tarlabaşı eight years ago, we would use the house of a family as a support home. Refugees and trans people were staying in certain rooms of the house.

"It was a solidarity home in the strict sense of the term. So, we placed both the owner of that house and the ones receiving support there to other houses for some time. We also started working to renovate that house.

"When the pandemic broke out, we could not continue with it. Our several friends were left homeless. It was a really difficult period, we could not move on. We want to open our solidarity home for our friends who are now homeless. We need support for this."

10 thousand masks and disinfectants distributed

Yaşar notes that though the name of the association refers to a single neighborhood, they are actually working actively in 21 districts. He says that they have handed out 10 thousand masks and disis so far. Yaşar also underlines that the problems of refugees are invisible in Turkey.

Statements of "Borders are open, passage to Europe is possible" make refugees suffer one more time, says Yaşar and puts emphasis on the importance of informing refugees correctly under such circumstances:

'If you say "you can pass," it means death'

"Calling on people to come to the border, saying that passage to the other side is possible is the same as telling them 'There is death.' Because there is no passage, the borders are closed. We - at least - know that the European police forces batter refugees on the Greek side.

"It is already summer, thousands of boats are now leaving the Aegean coasts, but who knows how many of them will make it to the other side. And the ones who will make it will face violence there. The majority of them will be unable to reach it. I recommend that the safety of refugees should be ensured and they should be given accurate information."

3 million 571 thousand 30 refugees

According to the figures shared by the Refugees Association, the number of Syrian refugees registered in Turkey increased by 116 thousand 214 people as of December 25, 2019 and became 3 million 571 thousand 30.

While 1 million 926 thousand 630 of them (53.9 percent) are men, 1 million 644 thousand 400 (46.1 percent) are women.

According to the report, in its statement dated December 4, 2019, the Interior Ministry announced that 369 thousand 690 Syrians left Turkey for their country. As for Ali Yerlikaya, the Governor İstanbul, he made a statement yesterday (July 5) and announced that 118 thousand 432 refugees were caught and 37 thousand 582 of them were deported in 2019.

While the report indicated that 62 thousand 420 people were staying in temporary refugee centers as of December 25, 2019, Governor Yerlikaya has said that this number fell by 78 thousand 243 people in 2019. (EMK/SD)