Being south of the chaotic country of Syria, Turkey has had its fair share of misfortunes. From a looming threat of the influx of IS militants into its borders to the thousands of refugees in Turkey’s refugee camps, Turkey’s crisis won’t end anytime soon. Here is a look at Turkey’s recent refugee crisis and its role in housing Syrians who have fled their native country in order to find security, shelter in their neighboring country to the north.
Such is the generosity and selflessness displayed by the Turkish nation, that they are housing the most number of refugees in the world today and have spent an astronomical amount of $6 billion in direct assistance to the impoverished refugees. The reason why Turkey’s shoulders are overburdened with refugees is because the conflict in neighboring Syria has been raging since the past four years now. In Syria alone, a staggering figure of more than 12 million people require aid just to stay alive and breathing. The conflict has also damaged the luxuries of almost 8 million refugees who have been forced to leave their homes and share crowded spaces with other families.Others simply have to adopt abandoned buildings as their homes.
The figures given by Turkish government as regards to the situation of refugees it is currently hiding, paints quite a grim picture. According to them (Turkish government) an estimated total of 1.6 million Syrians are currently in Turkey of which 200,000 are living in refugee camps. Turkey has been felicitated and appreciated worldwide for its positive role in providing shelter and refuge to Syrians. Turkey has an almost open-door policy for Syrians and although there are an estimated 200,000 Syrians living in refugee camps, other Syrians in huge quantities are also living outside of these camps. So much so that in some provinces such as Kilis, Syrians outnumber the Turks themselves!
Other countries in the world also have had refugee problems which have caused them to suffer from problems and inconveniences. Pakistan is one such nation that comes to mind whenever refugee crisis is addressed or spoken of. The nuclear armed nation hosted a huge number of refugees who crossed over from neighboring Afghanistan, during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. As a result, Pakistan was forced to house a whopping number of 1.5 million refugees and that put the third world country under a lot of burden.
