REFUGEE LIVES

The convictions were that the Baath regime would be soon overthrown when popular uprisings concluded with a sequence of toppling of the Tunisian, Egyptian and Libyan powers called Arab Spring have reached Syria in March 2011 in the Middle East. But they were reversed due to the Syrian ethnic and religious structure, geographical location and the power relations the Baath regime has generated on the basis of all these differences and international balances of power. The regime, unlike the predictions, remains standing. It led to the rapid engulfing of the country in violence as it headed for crushing the peaceful protests of the opposition violently. Syria has been dragged into a literal civil war with the armed opposition led by deserter soldiers, expatriate jihadist Islamic groups and the active support of states like Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey. The opposition fighting against the almost fifty-year dictatorship of Baath regime has suddenly found itself amongst a bloody conflict. Hundred thousands of people, vulnerable against the regime putting the army in place in order to crush the uprisings had to take shelter in neighboring countries. Syrians who try to flee neighboring countries especially Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq, legally and illegally, try to survive under difficult circumstances. According to the official estimates, today 240,000 refugees are living in camps in these four countries. Although there are no definite statistics about refugees who legally and illegality take refuge in these countries and elsewhere, it is estimated above 600,000.

From the unleashing of the uprising at March 2011 till November 2011 about 50,000 people –of them 2,148 children- have been killed by regime forces and armed opposition and about a hundred lose their lives per day due to the civil war. Also, since the beginning of civil war, about 250,000 are wounded, 400,000 are arrested and 100,000 are disappeared or unheard. Approximately 3 million people have left their home, internally displaced or abroad. 

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Human trafficking, Migration and immigration, Peace, War, The human condition, Human Rights, Refugee, Defector, Syria, Syrian, Arab Spring, Baath regime, human rights

According to the official estimates, now 120,147 people reside in Turkish camps. It is also estimated that about 100,000 Syrians live outside the camps on their own means. The majority in the camps are women and children, while most of men fight against the regime on the side of oppositional forces.

Syrian refugees mostly cross to the Turkish soil through the mined field at the frontier and risk their lives significantly. 

Problems have moved together with the Syrian people taking refuge at other countries during the civil war. Poor refugees are dragged into the market as cheap labour force. Women and children are particularly employed in agricultural fields for low salary and runthe risk of human rights violations. 

Refugees who try to live outside the camps on their own means have to reside tens of people at a single house due to high rents and other life expenses. This means things are getting harder for them. Refugees will face a more difficult life together with the coming winter and depletion of their savings. This makes them poor cheap labour in the countries they shelter. Many refugee women and children are working for low salaries and long hours under hard conditions in agricultural and textile enterprises particularly in Gaziantep, Şanlıurfa, Kahramanmaraş, Osmaniye and Hatay. It is possible to run across seasonal Syrian workers, university graduates, especially in pepper and cotton fields of Amik plain.

Prolonging civil war results in that women and children deprived of basic human rights like education, shelter and health lead “refugee lives” in other countries, as well as bringing social destruction in Syria.

Translated by; Pınar Şenoğuz

KEMAL VURAL TARLAN Social Documentary Photographer

www.kemalvuraltarlan.com

KEMAL VURAL TARLAN Social Documentary Photographer

www.kemalvuraltarlan.com