‘Terrified, exhausted and often with no idea where to go next’, more than 140,000 people who have fled the violence in Kobane for Turkey are in desperate need of support from the international community.
CARE International is on the ground, working alongside the Turkish Government and other agencies delivering aid to the huge influx of refugees fleeing fighting across the border, but as the violence continues more and more people are arriving and in need of support.
Country Director of CARE International in Turkey, John Uniack Davis, said: “This is a major man-made humanitarian emergency, and we cannot look away as innocent families yet again bear the brunt of this conflict. The international community has to step up to meet the urgent needs of the thousands of refugees who have fled across the border. The Government of Turkey, like other countries across the region, have been hosting hundreds of thousands of refugees from the conflict in Syria. Without this generosity the humanitarian impact of the crisis would be even more catastrophic but resources across the region are severely strained.”
Davis has been to the border to witness the influx: “Children are arriving on their own, terrified, exhausted and often with no idea of where to go next. Refugees are telling us that they have seen people badly injured by old landmines as they make their way across the border, but given the violence at home, they face these risks to escape the fighting. Families, mostly women and children, are fleeing with only the clothes on their back and no idea when they will be able to return or what will be left when they do.”
The United Nations estimates that more than 140,000 people – more than 15,000 per day – have crossed from Syria into Turkey since September 19. As the violence continues, the UN is warning that up to 400,000 people could seek refuge in Turkey in the coming days, joining nearly 870,000 Syrian refugees officially registered in Turkey - the vast majority of whom are not living in camps.
CARE International in Turkey has carried out rapid needs assessments and this week is beginning to deliver blankets, hygiene kits and food to people in towns, near the border that have seen a huge influx of people, where many are sleeping in parks, schools or mosques or seeking shelter in the Turkish Government-run camps. To begin with, CARE plans to reach 30,000 people in Southern Turkey with blankets, food and hygiene kits. CARE has been supporting more than half a million Syrians in Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt and Syria since the beginning of the crisis.
Suleyman Aiyab, aged 26, is a student from Kobane who has fled the fighting, he said:
“The situation is very bad. People need medicine, they have no water, food or electricity, even the simplest way of living is lost during this fighting. The psychological situation is terrible, something must be done to help our people, they are living in parks, and drinking dirty water but local people are trying to help by giving them water and blankets.
“People need everything. They are arriving just with the clothes on their back. One family had just 200 Syrian Pounds ($1.25USD) with them. People are coming from Kobane without their shoes, they are terrified they will be killed, but they are also afraid about diseases spreading among them as they are now living and sleeping in such cramped conditions, if one person gets sick, they will all get sick.”
Recent arrival Mahmoud Ahmed is a teacher from Kobane. He has gone blind due to diabetes. He said: “My son also has diabetes, we don’t have access to insulin. We live in a miserable state. We don’t know how to live. We have lost everything. We live on a piece of bread. In ordinary times we would feed that bread to animals. ”
Mariam Üstün, aged 25, said: “There is bombing in Kobane, we were scared and had to leave, we had no time so we just left in the clothes we are wearing. My uncle is sick, we have just a few days of medicine left. We have no idea what will happen next, we are just hoping it will get better as we have no income here.”
Read more about CARE's response to the Syria crisis.
CARE's Syria Response: CARE's provision of life-saving services to Syrian refugees and host communities in Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt and to people affected by the crisis in Syria has already reached more than 290,000 people. In Jordan, CARE provides Emergency Cash Assistance for refugees so they can pay for basic living costs, including rent, medication and food. CARE assists with vital information on how refugees can access further health, legal and social support and provides psychosocial assistance to women, men and children. CARE Lebanon repairs water and sanitation infrastructure, provides health education sessions, works with municipalities to improve water supply and sanitation infrastructure for refugees as well as for host communities. Syrian volunteers, who are refugees themselves, are an integral part of CARE's Syria Response. Alongside Jordanian and Lebanese volunteers, they assist in organising and preparing distributions of relief items.
During the winter months, CARE helped families in Jordan and Lebanon to prepare for and cope with the cold winter, distributing cash, heaters, fuel vouchers, blankets and floor mats. CARE Egypt has started raising awareness among the refugees of sexual exploitation and other forms of gender-based violence to protect them from any form of abuse. Our support to families affected by the crisis in Syria is based on humanitarian needs alone, no matter which religion, political affiliation or ethnicity people belong to.
About CARE: Founded in 1945, CARE is a leading humanitarian organization fighting global poverty and providing lifesaving assistance in emergencies. CARE places special focus on working alongside poor girls and women because, equipped with the proper resources, they have the power to help lift whole families and entire communities out of poverty.