TURKEY: U.N. Refugee Special Envoy Angelina Jolie receives a warm welcome from Syrian refugees as she visits Islahiye Islahiye refugee camp

Record ID: 346640

  • Title: TURKEY: U.N. Refugee Special Envoy Angelina Jolie receives a warm welcome from Syrian refugees as she visits Islahiye Islahiye refugee camp
  • Date: 14th September 2012
  • Summary: MORE OF REFUGEES WAITING FOR U.N. REFUGEE SPECIAL ENVOY ANGELINA JOLIE
  • Embargoed: 29th September 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Turkey
  • Country: Turkey
  • Topics: International Relations,Arts / Culture / Entertainment / Showbiz
  • Reuters ID: LVA2U9ACK5AADS4N9V4HJHY09468
  • Story Text: Angelina Jolie continued her tour of Syrian refugee camps in Turkey on Thursday (September 13), visiting the Islahiye camp with U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres.
    After earlier visiting the Kilis refugee camp the Hollywood star praised 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, 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.
    Guterres echoed Jolie's sentiment, saying the quality of the Kilis camp was the ideal model on which to base others around the globe.
    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.
    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.
    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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