site.btaSoaring Prices in Turkey Force Syrian Refugees Back to Homeland
Soaring prices in Turkey have compelled Syrian refugees to return to their homeland. “Everything in Turkey has become very expensive. It is hard to make ends meet. When we came, it was easy. But now rents have gone up and fuels have become more expensive. We can’t cope in these difficult economic conditions,” says Syrian national Inayat Ali Hamko.
The family of the 40-year-old father of three is among 50 Syrian refugees who with the support of the municipality of Esenyurt in Istanbul are returning to Syria.
Esenyurt Mayor Deniz Bozkurt said that the area has some of the largest populations of Syrian migrants in Istanbul.
“Migration is a very serious problem because of the increased pressure and our municipality put in place a programme. We are facilitating Syrian refugees who want to return to their native places. We provide buses to transport them to Syria, Because of the COVID-19 pandemic we had to stop for a while. Now we have sent a second group since the start of the year,” he said
According to him. their initiative has received wide publicity. Refugees from other areas too want places on the buses.
“If there are places, we get them on the buses. With the support of the town hall over 3,000 Syrian refugees have returned. Our buses take them to the border and afterwards with the assistance of Turkish officials they are taken to safe regions in Syria along a route devised by the Red Crescent,” said the Mayor.
Under Turkish law, Syrian migrants cannot return to Turkey for a period of five years.
The Esenyurt Municipality has 175,000 Syrian migrants officially registered but unofficially their number is believed to be over 300,000.
/PP/
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