44.000 Syrians arrive in NW Syria from Turkey after quake
IDLIB, Syria (North Press) – Two weeks after permitting Syrians to return to their country from Turkey, the number of arrivalshave reached 44.000 through four border crossings following the Feb. 6 earthquake.
Bab al-Hawa border crossing with Turkey north of Idlib revealed the number of the Syrian returnees to northwest Syria from disastrous Turkish areas through the crossing has surged to 16.685, 305 of which after obtaining a travel permit from the Turkish authorities arrived on the day 21 after the earthquake.
The number of the Syrian arrivals who accessed northwest Syria through Bab al-Salameh border crossing up to Tuesday has reached 10.829, while 13.000 others have arrived through Jarablus crossing northeast of Aleppo, according to statistics by the crossings’ managements.
Tel Abyad crossing north of Raqqa, north Syria, said 12.000 Syrians have entered the country over the course of 23 days.
Only Syrians who live in the quake-hit provinces of Gaziantep, Kilis, Kahramanmaraş, Hatay, Osmaniye, Adıyaman, Şanlıurfa, Diyarbakır, Malatya, Adana, Elazığ and hold the temporary protection card (Kimlik) are allowed to enter Syria.
The permit lasts at least three months and a maximum of six months. Syrian activists have expressed concern that Turkey will not allow their return.
The Syrians crossing the border after the earthquake are not convinced of Turkey’s assurances. Many have made a life in Turkey for over a decade. Turkey hosts 3.7 million Syrians; over half live in the 10 quake-affected provinces close to the Syrian border.
In the homestretch before general and presidential elections this year, the Turkish government and opposition parties have entered a race to the bottom, promising to expel ever-growing numbers of Syrians. Many refugees have ample reason to doubt that the government will make good on its promises.
Yet most Syrians have no choice but to return. Many of their homes have been destroyed, emergency shelters are overflowing, and rents elsewhere in Turkey have skyrocketed.
Many Syrians also have dead relatives to enter; at least 1.528 bodies have already been returned to Syria. “We have no other choice but to go to Syria,” a man in the queue at Bab al-Hawa told the New York Times, “but of course there is a fear that Turkey won’t allow us to return. We can’t guarantee it.”