Jordan is also now housing almost 100,000 Syrian refugees, far higher than the UN refugee agency UNHCR has registered, the foreign ministers of Turkey and Jordan told a joint news conference in Istanbul, where they discussed the crisis.
“We’ve now had official discussions, keeping in mind the increase in refugee numbers, and we will begin taking international aid,” Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Friday. “Actually, it has effectively begun.”
Davutoglu said Turkey has turned to the UN refugee agency UNHCR and other international groups for help and added that G8 foreign ministers also offered support during a video conference call this week to discuss the Syrian crisis.
So far, the UNHCR has dispatched 3,000 tents and 3,000 blankets, a Turkish official said.
“This is not an international call. Whereas previously we relied on our own national means, we are now a ccepting offers of help from international bodies,” the official said on condition his name not be used.
Ankara had not publicly asked for help from abroad, but in recent days has begun to reach out to partners. Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan this week said NATO had a “responsibility” to protect member Turkey’s border after two Turks and two Syrians at a refugee camp were wounded by cross-border fire.
Erdogan has said the cost of caring for displaced Syrians has cost Turkey $150 million to date, Turkish media reported.
Turkey has set up about 10 camps for Syrians fleeing more than a year of violence between rebels and President Bashar Assad’s forces. Almost 10,000 people have died in the conflict.
Most of the refugees in Turkey are located in the provinces of Gaziantep and Hatay. Authorities have also erected a container city in Kilis province where 9,000 people are staying,
Amman is also turning to the international community for help because it is struggling to provide services to Syrians sheltering there, Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh said.
“Jordanians are sharing their food with close to 100,000 refugees from Syria, some of whom have entered illegally,” Judeh said.
“We are beginning to experience difficulties providing energy and water,” Judeh said. “Just as we have looked after our Iraq brothers, we will provide for our Syrian brothers.”
The UNHCR has said there are 55,000 Syrian refugees in the region who have been registered or are awaiting registration. In Jordan, there are 8,270 registered Syrians and 4,466 waiting to register with the agency. Some 30,000 have been identified as in need of assistance, according to the UNHCR’s website on Syria.
“We’re not in dispute about the figures,” Sybella Wilkes, UNHCR spokewoman, told Reuters. “We can’t count people we haven’t seen ... We’re not saying that we’ve finished the job of registering; we’re in the middle of it.”
Turkey fears a surge of refugees, similar to the tens of thousands who crossed from Iraq during the 1991 Gulf War and overwhelmed Turkish aid services.
Ankara has signalled a tide of refugees is one of the factors that could trigger efforts to establish a “safe zone” on the Syrian side of the border.
