TURKEY: Speaking at Kilis refugee camp in her role as U.N. special envoy, Angelina Jolie praises efforts made by Turkey to accommodate Syrian refugees fleeing their own country's conflict

Record ID: 281334

  • Title: TURKEY: Speaking at Kilis refugee camp in her role as U.N. special envoy, Angelina Jolie praises efforts made by Turkey to accommodate Syrian refugees fleeing their own country's conflict
  • Date: 14th September 2012
  • Summary: KILIS, TURKEY (SEPTEMBER 13, 2012) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF U.N. REFUGEE SPECIAL ENVOY, ANGELINA JOLIE, LEAVING KILIS REFUGEE CAMP BRIEFING BUILDING JOLIE TOURING CAMP WITH U.N. HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES, ANTONIO GUTERRES
  • Embargoed: 29th September 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Turkey
  • Country: Turkey
  • Topics: International Relations,Entertainment,People
  • Reuters ID: LVADZA3A7U4Q1T4456W9CCYYER47
  • Story Text: Angelina Jolie continued her tour of the Kilis camp for Syrian refugees in Turkey on Thursday (September 13), praising the efforts made by the Turkish government to provide for the camp's residents after they fled a conflict that has claimed the lives of more than an estimated 27,000 people.
    Acting in her role as U.N. Refugee Special Envoy, and after touring the camp with the U.N. High commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, Jolie lauded the steps taken by Turkey to accommodate the some 80,000 Syrians that had crossed the border to escape their own country's ongoing conflict.

    "We are extremely grateful. At the same time of course as you meet with this people, met with many, many families today, many children and they are very grateful to Turkey, very grateful to the Turkish people and they are very, very emotional, and very deeply saddened by the situation in Syria and very concerned about the families or the friends in their country," she said.
    Guterres echoed Jolie's sentiment, saying the quality of the Kilis camp was the ideal model on which to base others around the globe.

    "I would be a happy man if we would be able to provide all the refugees in the world the same kind of conditions that, generously, Turkish government provided here in Kilis camp to the Syrian refugees. The quality of the shelter, education, health, all the services that people need to be able to have a dignified life are here at [the] disposal of the Syrian refugees," he said.
    Both Jolie and Guterres were taken on a tour of the entire camp, which houses 15,000 of the refugees that have fled Syria.
    The United Nations is in the process of registering more than 250,000 refugees from the 17-month-old conflict in four neighbouring countries, with more than 100,000 arriving in August alone.
    Jolie said she was taken aback by the scale of provisions made to look after Syrian refugees.

    "With the generosity of the Turkish government and the ability of them to fund such extraordinary camps, it is extremely impressive. As Mr Guterres, our high commissioner said, we wish there was enough funds and ability around the world to care for all families who are fleeing conflict prosecution in this manner. It is quite extraordinary and I have never seen anything quite like it," she said.
    Turkey has recently limited the flow of refugees declaring the influx was beyond what it can deal with and called for international help.
    Syrian opposition groups say more than 27,000 people have died in an uprising that has lasted more than 17 months and has descended into outright civil war in the pivotal Arab state.
    Jolie and Guterres visited a field hospital after earlier touring other parts of the camp.
    The actress, who apparently earned $20 million last year, according to Forbes, thanked the media for not disrupting her tour.

    "Thank you very much and thank you for your cooperation so we were allowed to visit with the families," she said.
    The United Nations has estimated that more than two million Syrians have seen their lives disrupted by the crisis.
    Many have sought refuge elsewhere in their own country, while others, such as the Atma group wait on a border, while, as in this case, the Turkish authorities try to process the influx of refugees, which already tops some 80,000 Syrians.
    The U.N. refugee agency says the number of Syrian refugees in Turkey could reach 200,000.
    Ankara fears a mass influx similar to the flight of half a million Iraqi Kurds into Turkey after the 1991 Gulf War.
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