They come and go all day, some of them driving in, others on foot, carrying their belongings in big bundles or wearing dress slacks and trailing roller suitcases. Except for intermittent closures, when fighting is too intense or fears of terrorist activity at the border arise, any Syrians with passports can cross through checkpoints. Whatever the reason, Turkey decided to open its arms to its war-ravaged Syrian neighbors. The Syrians are also mostly Sunni Muslims, and Turkey has a record of embracing refugees with ethnic and cultural ties it absorbed more than 300,000 from Bulgaria in 1989 and 25,000 from Bosnia in the early ‘90s. Initially refusing Syrian refugees entry might have been difficult, given the already open border between the two countries and the gaps between checkpoints and a war close enough to bring in stray fire. Turkey signed the agreement but did so with a “geographical limitation”: Its mandate applies only to refugees from Europe. The 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees prohibits states from forcing them back over borders into danger and guarantees their right to work, shelter, travel and public assistance. Technically, the 14,000 residents at Kilis are not refugees but “guests” of Turkey. It’s a normal response.”īut the fact is, it isn’t - not just because the camps are unusually well equipped but also because Turkey long ago exempted itself from any obligation to respond at all. “You have a refugee problem, what do you do?” said a Turkish official who, like most officials in Turkey, would speak only on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the press. None of the smells - rotting garbage, raw sewage - usually associated with human crush and lack of infrastructure. Inside, it’s stark: 2,053 identical containers spread out in neat rows. Residents scan a card with their fingerprints for entry, before they pass through metal detectors and run whatever items they’re carrying through an X-ray machine. Many of the world’s displaced live in conditions striking for their wretchedness, but what is startling about Kilis is how little it resembles the refugee camp of our imagination. Police officers and private security mill about. High gates bar entry, and barbed wire tops the walls. To its right stands what is more formally known as the Republic of Turkey Prime Ministry Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency’s Kilis Oncupinar Accommodation Facility. A metal archway announces the customs gate to Syria. All around are olive groves, but here, Turkey suddenly runs out. From the outside, the temporary shelter for Syrian civilians in Kilis, Turkey, doesn’t look like an inviting place to live.
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