TURKEY: New camps opened as Syrian refugee flow increases

Record ID: 276263

  • Title: TURKEY: New camps opened as Syrian refugee flow increases
  • Date: 1st June 2011
  • Summary: HATAY, TURKEY (JUNE 11, 2011) (REUTERS) VIEW OF NEWLY CONSTRUCTED BOYNUYOGUN REFUGEE CAMP BEDS BEING CARRYIED INSIDE MAN ERECTING A TENT LOCAL CHILDREN PLAYING AROUND THE CAMP VARIOUS OF BOYNUYOGUN CAMP TURKISH RED CRESCENT TRUCK PARKED NEARBY THE CAMP (SOUNDBITE) (English) TURKISH FOREIGN MINISTRY SPOKESMAN SELCUK UNAL SAYING: "The total number of the Syrian natio
  • Embargoed: 16th June 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Turkey, Turkey
  • Country: Turkey
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA82PGQDP2S0BDUFIUUPW521M02
  • Story Text: More than 4,000 Syrians have fled to Turkey to escape a crackdown on protests against President Bashar al-Assad, while thousands more shelter near the border, Turkish Foreign Ministry Spokesman Selcuk Unal said on on Saturday (June 11).
    Fearing security forces' revenge for clashes in which 120 troops were reported killed this week, the refugees escaped the northern town of Jisr al-Shughour ahead of a military operation launched by the army there on Friday (June 10).
    "The total number of the Syrian nationals who were granted to pass to Turkey on humanitarian grounds are 4,010 as of this morning and we are continuing our assistance to them," Unal said.
    Unal stressed Turkey was prepared for further inflows, though he declined to predict how many may come.
    "As I said we don't want to expect more, however if there will be more people coming, of course we will continue our assistance to them but we don't want to announce a number because we don't know," Unal said.
    Turkish officials in the border province of Hatay said a tent hospital was being set up near the refugee camps to prepare for possible arrival of wounded civillians.
    Inside Syria, thousands more people were gathering close to the frontier, according to an activist helping coordinate the movement of refugees.
    Across the country 36 people were killed on Friday, activists said, when government forces fired on protests, which have continued for 12 weeks despite violent repression.
    Human rights groups say security forces have killed more than 1,100 Syrian civilians in increasingly bloody efforts to suppress demonstrations calling for Assad's removal, more political freedoms and end to corruption and poverty.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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