Turkish government to relocate five refugee camps

Turkey will shut down five refugee centres located in Gaziantep, Adıyaman and Mardin provinces, and 34,180 asylum seekers will be resettled to the camps along the Syrian border
Thursday, 02 August 2018 01:11

The Turkish AKP government has decided to shut down five refugee camps in southeastern provinces of Gaziantep, Adıyaman and Mardin, local media reported. With this decision, 34,180 asylum seekers will be resettled to the camps located along the Syrian border.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had pledged to send millions of Syrian refugees home, responding to growing unease among voters about the Syria policy and the number of migrants in the country. 

More than 3.5 million Syrian refugees are living in Turkey.

The instruction sent by Turkey’s Ministry of Interior Directorate General of Migration Management to all tent cities in the relevant provinces on July 31 notified that refugee camps in Nizip, Islahiye and Karkamış districts of Gaziantep province (with 23,095 Syrian refugees), refugee camps located in Adıyaman province (with 8,627 refugees) and Midyat district of Mardin province (with 2,458 refugees) would be shut down by the government.

It is also stated that 34,180 Syrian asylum seekers in the camps to be shut down would be settled in refugee camps located in the southern province of Hatay, the southeastern province of Kilis, and Akçakale, Suruç and Ceylanpınar districts of Şanlıurfa.

The relocation process is planned to be completed within 1 month although the Nizip container city in Gaziantep ─ where 5,000 Syrians currently live ─ will operate for a while, the Ministry of Interior Directorate General of Migration Management stated.