"The vast majority of Syrian refugees in Turkey wish to stay there"
Syrian refugees in the Ondergazi district in the Turkish capital Ankara, in 2017 (Photo illustration) © ADEM ALTAN / AFP
Text by: Anissa El Jabri Follow
8 mins
Five years after the signing of a migration agreement between the European Union and Turkey, 3.6 million Syrian refugees live in Turkey and everything indicates that a large number of them will not be leaving, at least not anytime soon .
Interview with Bruno Rotival, Head of the Humanitarian Office of the European Commission (Echo) in Istanbul.
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RFI: Why did you open an office in Istanbul?
Bruno Rotival:
the office opened in 2017. We had an office in Gaziantep since the start of the crisis and the arrival of Syrian refugees in 2011. At the beginning, the response in 2011-2012 was wanted as a model by the Turkish government .
13 camps were created on the Syrian border, very well designed camps, but quickly with the influx of people, the refugees could no longer go to the camps and some elsewhere did not want to: they wanted to go to the cities to be able to work.
Quickly, the vast majority of Syrians on Turkish territory found themselves first outside the camps and gradually no longer just in the south-east but throughout the territory.
In the end, 5 years later, they were all over the country, so there was a need to adjust to the situation and support the refugees in western Turkey, which by nature attracts refugees but also Turks, because it is the economic heart of the country.
The office of the Turkish Interior Ministry speaks today of 3.6 million Syrians registered in Turkey, and 400,000 non-Syrian refugees, so around 4 million refugees are present in the territory.
Certainly, there are people who have just arrived, babies who have just been born, and all of those are not registered, because it takes a long time.
3.6 million registered Syrians who have, here, a very special status known as "
invited", a status which is not that of "
refugees
" in the sense of the UNHCR, explain us.
This status allows refugees to access all government services, it is the first thing: social services, health service, everything is available, accessible.
One of the nuances compared to the status defined by the 1951 convention is the need to have a work permit in order to be able to work and another is the fact of having to be registered in a given province.
Once you are, there are difficulties in reaching another province, which is a problem here in western Turkey, because refugees are drawn to the economic prospects.
The Marmara region is 65% of the country's industry and between 20 and 25% of the Turkish population.
A population that lives here and continues to see people arriving.
Istanbul is a constantly growing city of population, this is true for the refugees and it is true for the Turkish population.
Obviously, this attraction means that we see increasingly severe difficulties and constraints imposed by the authorities for the registration of refugees: today it is extremely complicated if not impossible for a refugee who has not yet been registered. to do so in Istanbul.
On the other hand, it can do it very easily in the rest of the country.
Is it complicated to get a work permit?
Yes, you need the agreement of the company and pay to get a work permit.
There is a significant increase in the number of permits granted but the percentage of people who work legally is extremely limited.
Somehow, this is something that reflects the economic situation in Turkey, where informal work constitutes a substantial part of the economy, we usually talk about 30%, it is extremely important.
How does the aid provided by the European Union work?
The
agreement between the EU and the Turkish government
is the payment of two installments of three billion euros.
Of these 6 billion, the Directorate General for Humanitarian Action and Civil Protection directly implemented about 2.5 billion, a sum allocated mainly to humanitarian aid programs.
We have set up health centers, we have enabled access to health for refugees by creating a dedicated system, in particular because the Turkish health system is fragile and the number of refugees is high, in part. also to avoid language barrier problems.
We have set up a whole program to promote access to education for children: we distribute cash for families who send their children to school.
► See also: Turkey-EU migration agreement: five years later, the reform desired by Erdogan remains blocked
We have a major cash distribution program based on certain criteria.
Almost half of the refugee population today benefits from it to pay their rent, for example.
As in Turkey most often the refugees do not live in camps but in an urban environment, they must therefore pay rent, electricity, water, education, a small part of access to health ... and they obviously have to feed.
In short, they have costs and rather than setting up humanitarian aid for these 1.8 million people that we have identified as needing help, there is a card that we created with money. .
It is a program managed today by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) which works with the Turkish Red Crescent, which distributes money every month to help this half of the refugee population in Turkey who have been identified as in need of assistance.
The rest is support for infrastructure, education, entry into the world of work.
I would like to point out that the tensions within society between refugees and Turks are very minor, there are incidents, but they are low in view of the number of people present in the territory.
The policy in general, the reception of the Syrian refugee population has been generous.
► See also: Syrian refugees in Turkey, peaceful cohabitation
There is a lot of talk in Europe about Syrians who are only waiting for one thing, the opening of the borders to rush into the countries of the EU. Do you notice yourself
?
Out of 4 million refugees on Turkish soil, there are still people who want to go to Europe.
This dream still exists, and the more the refugees live in difficult conditions, the more this desire remains.
This desire for Europe therefore exists, but for a small minority.
We will always see people trying to cross, desperate people here, or people for whom Turkey is above all a transit country, in particular the Afghans and Pakistanis whose dream is to reach an elsewhere that is not not Turkey.
Now, the vast majority of Syrian refugees in Turkey wish to stay there.
They would like to be able to return home, but obviously the conditions today do not really allow it.
The default choice is therefore to stay in Turkey and offer a future to your children.
I have met families where parents are ready to sacrifice themselves, are ready for a difficult life, because they know that by staying here they are going to offer their children the possibility of having a future and that is it. something very important.
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