Turkey remains open to Syrian refugees
2013-01-23 18:06
Gallery | click on thumbnail to view larger image
The United Nations speak of a 'Children's refugee crisis' because more than half Syria refugees are children.
-
Turkey
This concise history tells the story of Turkey, a country caught between the ideologies of East and...
Now R197.00
buy now
Davos - More than 650 000 people have fled the conflict
in Syria, a top UN official said on Wednesday, as Turkey's foreign minister
pledged Ankara would continue to accept refugees.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, UN Aid Chief
Valerie Amos said the humanitarian situation in Syria was "already
catastrophic and clearly getting worse".
"The harsh winter is exacerbating the already appalling
conditions. More than 650 000 people have left the country," she added.
The UN says more than 60 000 people have died in the
Syria conflict which began 22 months ago with peaceful protests that erupted
into deadly violence in the wake of a harsh regime crackdown.
The UN has also predicted that the number of Syrian
refugees in neighbouring countries will double to 1.1 million by June if the
civil war does not end.
"I hope there is no doubt left in the mind of our
political leaders as to the scale of the human tragedy unfolding in
Syria," said Amos.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said his country
was sheltering about 160 000 refugees in 16 camps and announced that his
government was building another to house the steady flow of people fleeing the
unrest.
"We will continue to have a policy of open door and
we will never close our borders," pledged Davutoglu, although he
acknowledged: "The flow of refugees is really alarming us."
"We don't know how many children we lost. We don't
know how many pregnant women we lost who also lost their children," he
said.
"How long will we wait? How long will the Security
Council be silent in front of this humanitarian crisis."
