Afghan refugees and Turkey, Part 1: Death, misery, and discrimination after the earthquakes
Most people were sleeping when a powerful earthquake struck southern and central Turkey as well as western Syria shortly after 4 a.m on February 6. A few hours later, another huge earthquake hit around 100 km away in the same region. Twenty days later, the death toll stands at more than 50,000, including 44,300 in Turkey, according to government officials, and a minimum of 5,900 in Syria, where many of the dead are still unaccounted for. The number of injured is believed to be more than 100,000, while at least 1.5 million residents were made homeless.
Seismologists said that the massive quakes measured 7.8 and 7.7 on the Richter scale, respectively. The area, which is at the junction of three major tectonic plates, sustained heavy damage to its infrastructure as well as buildings. In Turkey alone, more than a hundred aftershocks have hit the region, which is home to 13 million people in 11 provinces. In addition to Turkish residents, that area is home to a sizable refugee population, both registered and undocumented.
At least 350,000 Afghan refugees live in Turkey, according to government statistics, though the full extent of how many were affected by the earthquakes remains unknown, even weeks after the quakes struck. While the Turkish government hasn’t published any data about Afghan victims, one volunteer association in Turkey that works in the refugee sector, reports registering more than 1,400 dead and wounded among Afghan refugees. “According to the data collected by the association from the earthquake-affected provinces, so far more than 600 Afghan refugees have been killed and more than 800 others have been injured in recent earthquakes,” says Dr. Zakira Hekmat, head of the Afghan Refugee Solidarity Association (ARSA), which has supported refugees in Turkey since 2009. She says that many of those rescued from the rubble of collapsed buildings have had limbs amputated and some are still in comas. (Zan Times reached out to the Afghan embassy in Turkey, which promised to provide data on the status of Afghan refugees in the country. Zan Times has not received its response by the time of publication.)
While money and aid is pouring into the region, Afghan refugees who talked with Zan Times say that the Turkish government and international organizations are paying them less attention than residents, even though they’ve suffered both casualties and financial losses.
Rehana Hassanzada, a 24-year-old Afghan refugee, lives with her mother and brother in Emeksiz, a neighbourhood in the centre of Malatya, Turkey. She was sleeping in her bedroom on the third floor of their apartment building when the first earthquake struck in the early hours of . “We ran out on the street with our bare feet. We were there for 10 minutes. The weather was very, very cold,” she recounts to Zan Times. “I did not allow my mother and brother to enter the building, because it had cracked in the earthquake. I went into the building myself and took warm clothes and shoes for us, closed the door, and left.”
With her mother and brother, Rehana, took refuge in a nearby mosque along with a large number of local residents. Then, at around 1 p.m., the second earthquake hit, damaging their temporary home. They had no choice but to leave the mosque and travel by city bus to a distant mosque that was still standing. “More than 150 Afghans and some Turks took shelter in this mosque,” she explains. “We had no clothes and our boots were wet. There were no blankets and several times we requested tents and warm clothes, but they did not pay attention to our requests.” She also says that “They distributed aid to the Turks, but told us to wait.”
She does say that the Turkish government simplified some of the restrictions imposed on refugees. According to Turkish law, asylum seekers who have applied for international protection do not have the right to leave the city where they live without the permission of the immigration office but after the earthquake, that rule was lifted for the refugees in the earthquake-affected provinces for up to 90 days. While she says the relaxation of the rule is helpful, it is of little practical use to her or her family.
“The immigration department announced that asylum seekers can travel to other cities without a travel permit, but how? With which money?” questions Rehana. “We have nothing with us and our belongings are under the rubble.”
At the same time, she says that the Turkish government is using buses, trains, and planes to transfer the injured or homeless to other cities but won’t include Afghan and other refugees on those government-financed transports to points outside the earthquake zone.
Zakira Hekmat, the head of ARSA, says, “Turkish citizens were transferred to other cities by government vehicles and moved to hotels and government places like dormitories, but the asylum seekers were left to their own devices. It was only said that the asylum seekers can travel without permission at their own expense.”
Hashemi was one of those Afghan refugees who was refused access to Turkish government help when he needed to leave the disaster area. When the earthquakes hit, he was living with his elderly parents in Kahramanmaras. “As soon as the first earthquake calmed down, part of the roof of our kitchen collapsed,” he tells Zan Times. It’s at that point that he evacuated his parents from their structurally damaged house, losing all their belongings in the process.
“In the first days of the incident, we were going through very difficult conditions until the aid of the government and charitable organizations arrived. Tents were distributed to us, but there was a shortage of sanitary facilities and we could not survive in those conditions,” Hashemi explains. “The Turkish government used state facilities to transfer Turkish citizens to other provinces, but they did not allow Afghans and said, ‘You should wait.’” Finally, a week after the quakes hit, Hashemi and his parents reached Istanbul by private transport, thanks to financial help from his relatives. Now living with relatives, he says that many Afghan refugees aren’t as fortunate and are still living in tents in the disaster zone during the cold of winter.
Another Afghan refugee, who asked not to be identified for fear of repercussions, said that he and his family of six lived in the city of Malatya when their home was destroyed. “We were given only one tent and three meals a day,” he tells Zan Times. “There were no other means of life.” Nearly two weeks after the quakes, he and relations sought out help from government officials in the city as well as the Turkish Red Crescent so they could move away from the devastation. “They did not pay any attention to me. I was told that they are currently focusing on Turkish citizens and cannot cooperate with other nationalities,” he says. So the asylum seeker and his family scraped together enough money to move in with relatives in northern Turkey.
Afghan refugees were living in destitution and critical conditions even before these earthquakes destroyed large swathes of southern and central Turkey. In part 2 of this report, Zan Times will investigate problems that have long affected Afghan refugees in the country.
