Yazidis fleeing their hometown of Sinjar after it was attacked by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) have started to settle in a camp established by Turkey’s disaster agency in the Zakho region of Northern Iraq.
Initially, 45 tents have been set up for 2,250 people in the camp, but the number of tents will increase to 100 very soon, an official from the Prime Ministry’s Disaster and Emergency Management Directorate (AFAD) told the Hürriyet Daily News.
Another camp is being set up for the displaced minority group in the Bersive district of Zakho with a capacity of 100 tents. In total, the two camps will host 7,250 Yazidis, soon to increase to 10,000, the official said.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) opened a corridor for the Yazidi people from Sinjar to pass through, but it is estimated that 10,000-15,000 are still trapped on the mountain and can only cross the corridor in small groups, the official added.
So far, around 2,000 Yazidis from Iraq have crossed the Habur border seeking refuge in Turkey. These refugees have been placed in tents and post-earthquake houses near the border.
The Turkish government has decided to shelter Yazidi refugees in a camp near the Mor Gabriel Monastery close to Mardin, which was previously set up for Syrians fleeing to Turkey. The municipality of the southeastern province of Şanlıurfa has also set up a camp for 3,000 Yazidis.
Meanwhile, the official denied media reports claiming that another camp for Iraqi Turkmens, also fleeing the violence in Iraq, does not exist or was canceled, saying construction was ongoing. The camp for Iraqi Turkmens is being set up north of Dohuk in northern Iraq, which will have a 20,000-person capacity, the official added.
Turkey's relief agency said Aug. 15 it was time for the world to start "sharing the burden" for the 1.2 million Syrian refugees it is hosting, especially those living outside of refugee camps.
Hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees have fled the civil war to neighbouring Turkey in the last three years after Prime Minister and now president-elect Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced an open-door policy.
Some 285,000 Syrian refugees are now living in refugee camps concentrated in southeastern Turkey, according Turkey's Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD). But a far larger number of 912,000 are living outside of camps in cities across the country, according to AFAD, and their presence has become an increasing source of tension with local residents.
AFAD's head Fuat Oktay told reporters in Istanbul that the international community should do more to help Turkey cope.
"The international community has to come to an understanding that they should become part of the solution," he said. "They (the international community) should start sharing the burden," he said.
Turkey has spent some $3.5 billion (2.6 billion euros) managing the situation but has received only $224 million in international assistance, AFAD said.
Oktay said other nations could help Turkey by building, and even running, new refugee camps inside the country. Other countries could also help building schools, a huge priority given that a quarter of refugees are of school age, and ensure that the young are not left on the streets, he said.
Tensions between local Turks and Syrian refugees living outside of camps boiled over into violent protests this week in the southern city of Gaziantep.
Reports said that some 2,000 Syrian refugees were subsequently moved from Gaziantep to refugee camps but Oktay insisted that no Syrian was forced to move as long as they were within the law.
He said the authorities were however keen for all those sleeping on the streets or in parks to be moved to camps. Asked if Syrians were free to choose whether they lived in camps or outside, he said: "They do have a choice, as long as it is within the same legal framework that Turks are also under."
Meanwhile, Turkey is also dealing with another influx of refugees after some 2,000 members of the Yazidi religious minority fled over the border from Islamic militants.
However Oktay said Turkey's "main policy is to help refugees inside Iraq" and that it was building three camps inside Iraqi territory for displaced Yazidis and Turkmens.
Iraqi Yazidi lawmaker Feyyan Dahil, who was brought to Turkey after being injured in a helicopter crash while carrying aid to displaced members of her community in northern Iraq, underwent surgery in an Istanbul hospital on Aug. 13.
Doctors have said Dahil had a broken leg and two broken ribs but her condition was not life-threatening. She will undergo second surgery on Aug. 14.
Dahil had made a chilling appeal for help at the Iraqi Parliament last week, explaining in tears that the Yazidi community was being indiscriminately massacred by militants of the so-called Islamic State and women were bring abducted as concubines.
The massacre triggered yet another huge flight and refugee influx, with tens of thousands of Yazidis seeking refuge in camps near the Syrian and Turkish borders.
Dahil was accompanied by a New York Times reporter and a photographer when she suffered the helicopter accident on Aug. 12, both of whom were also brought to Turkey for treatment. The pilot of the helicopter died in the crash.
The aircraft was dropping food and other supplies to Yazidis who have taken refuge in the remote mountains of northern Iraq, as they flee from militants of the Islamic State.
Turkey’s disaster agency will set up a tent city in Zakho, northern Iraq, to host around 16,000 Yazidi people who fled the Sinjar region amid ongoing attacks by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
The layout plan for the city has already been drafted, Anadolu Agency reported, citing sources from the Prime Ministry’s Disaster and Emergency Management Directorate (AFAD), which will build the camp. The agency said the camp will “consist of hotel-tents.”
Some 30,000 to 40,000 Yazidis have fled to Syria, while around 100,000 more have sought refuge in Zakho.
“There are currently around 6,500 Yazidis seeking shelter near the border,” AFAD said. The agency is also planning to send four trucks of humanitarian aid to the region in order to meet the essential requirements of the displaced minority group.
ISIL militants captured Sinjar and Rabia in Nineveh province last week, forcing thousands of Turkmen, Arabs, Christians and Yazidis to flee.
Some 2,000 Yazidis from Iraq crossed the Habur border seeking refuge in Turkey. The refugees have been placed in tents and post-earthquake houses in the region.
The Turkish government decided to shelter Yazidi refugees in Silopi in a camp near Mor Gabriel Monastery in Mardin which was set up earlier for Syriacs that have fled to Turkey. The municipality of the southeastern province of Şanlıurfa has also decided to set up a camp for 3,000 Yazidis.
The Turkish Red Crescent has provided 20,000 blankets and sleeping bags, and sent a truckload of biscuits and drinking water for Yazidi refugees to the Silopi district in the southeastern province of Şırnak. The aid is being distributed to the refugees under the supervision of AFAD, the agency said Aug. 13.
Turkey has also decided to set up a camp in Dohuk for Iraqi Turkmens fleeing from jihadist violence.
Meanwhile, a proposal by the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) for an inquiry into the problems of the Yazidis was rejected in Turkey’s Parliament.
Meanwhile, another government agency, the Turkish International Cooperation and Development Agency (TİKA), will produce prefabricated houses to be sent to Gazans whose houses have been destroyed in recent Israeli attacks, Deputy Prime Minister Emrullah İşler announced on his Twitter account. The deputy said the initiative came upon an order from President-elect Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
