He stands straight outside the tent. He has lived this life before. The tent is different from the other tents in the camp set up on the outskirts of the town of Islahiye in Turkey. The UN logo is planted on the front. It is dirty, more beige than white. Well used. When Jamil and his family came to Turkey fleeing the bloody civil war in Syria in 2011, they were assigned exactly that tent. It became their home for eight long years. news has spoken to several Syrian refugee families in the big city of Gaziantep and in Islahiye after the earthquake that has killed over 41,000 people in Turkey and Syria. Several talk about discrimination in Turkish society, and claim it has worsened after the earthquake. Not everyone dares to be cited in this case. These are the stories of how it feels to live a life on the sidelines of society while the whole of society is collapsing. news has repeatedly asked Turkey’s crisis management agency AFAD about the allegations in this case, but has not received an answer. Jamil and his family are back in the tent they lived in as refugees for eight years. Photo: Julia Thommessen / news When Jamil’s family could finally move from the refugee camp to an apartment and start a new life, he saved on the tent. The rent could go up, he thought. Things could turn around. Now they are back in the tent. The earthquakes that hit southeastern Turkey made the home uninhabitable. Things turned around. – We thought we were going to die. We stared death in the eye. The house swayed back and forth several times, says Jamil, gesturing with his arms. – Thank God that we are alive. Almost 4 million Syrian refugees live in Turkey, according to UNHCR. Jamil is worried about relatives on both sides of the border: – I hope God helps them. We do not get in touch with relatives in Syria, so we do not know if they are getting help. My son lives in a tent from before, but even that is destroyed, he says to news. In the tent camp, food, water, clothes, blankets and other things are distributed to people who have lost everything they need. Photo: Julia Thommessen / news – We are all people The majority of the Syrian refugee population in Turkey lives in the border areas, in areas such as Sanliurfa, Hatay and Gaziantep. Here, one in four has a refugee background. The areas were badly damaged in the earthquake. The relationship between the local population and refugees has long been tense. Turkey’s hard-pressed economic situation creates frustration over the sums of money the country spends on refugees, according to Reuters. Both sides in Turkish politics, but especially the opposition, use harsh rhetoric about Syrian refugees to win over voters in the elections to be held this summer, writes Syria Direct. The destruction is enormous in Islahiye. Photo: Julia Thommessen / news – Are you Syrian, we ask a man in a neighborhood where many Syrians lived before the earthquake. – No, thank God, he replies, and claims he helped arrest three Syrians who stole the day before. – The locals don’t do that, he claims. Because after the earthquake, it can seem as if the tension has increased. In recent days, rumors have abounded in social media. Videos showing Turks accusing Syrians of theft are spreading like wildfire. People offer help to earthquake victims, as long as they are not Syrian. In some videos, the Syrians are both physically and verbally attacked. Some Syrians news has spoken to claim to have experienced this themselves. Photo: Julia Thommessen / news They say they got tents later than Turks Outside another tent in what has become the Syrian part of the tent camp, the brothers Ahmed and Anas sit around a fire. They do not want to be depicted for fear of the regime in Syria. The children run in and out of the tent with noodle cups in their hands. Climbing up and down on Dad’s motorcycle, seemingly unaffected by what they’ve been through. Lives are lost on both sides of the border. 16 of the brothers’ relatives have died here. 60 in Syria. Photo: Julia Thommessen / news Ahmed and Anas believe they were only allocated tents days after the Turks in the tent camp got them. For four long winter nights with snow on the ground, the family had to curl up in front of a fire under the open sky. – Those who should be prioritized first are Turkish citizens. This is not our homeland, so that’s the way it is, says Ahmed. In general, the brothers feel well treated by the locals in Islahiye. They say there have been cases of discrimination even before the earthquake, but that they have Turkish friends and a network in the city. But something is different. White mountain peaks surround the town of Islahiye, which before the earthquake had around 66,000 inhabitants. Photo: Julia Kirsebom Thommessen / news They think they were prevented from contributing to the search. Several residents news has spoken to say it took several days before the rescue teams reached Islahiye. In those days it was the locals who had to save each other. Ahmed and Anas volunteered, but were kept away from the aid work, they claim: – They thought we were going to steal jewelery or something like that, says Anas. – Of course it is Syrians who steal. But Turks can also steal. People are different and it has nothing to do with their nationality, adds Ahmed. For the brothers, it was hard not to be able to contribute when the town that has remained home was in the middle of the disaster. Ahmed and Anas will not be photographed by news for fear of the authorities in their home country of Syria. Photo: Julia Thommessen / news – It was difficult. I heard the voices from inside the ruins. People shouted for help. But we had to refrain, says Anas. The brothers fled from bombed-out Idlib in Syria a few years ago. Seeing Islahiye destroyed brought back memories. – We have experience with this. Assad bombed, and it looked like it’s doing here now. We have rescued people from ruins before, he continues, before Ahmed concludes: – Other people can be frightened by seeing a person without a head, without arms or legs. But we are not afraid. We’ve seen it before. We could contribute. The sons of Ahmed and Anas show off their new home. Photo: Julia Thommessen / news Afraid of losing Turkish friends The sun is shining in the big city of Gaziantep, or Antep in the vernacular. Sem (17) and his mother Lina sit in the shade. They are waiting for transport home to Islahiye, where they now have to live in tents because their house has been destroyed. Lina has been discharged from hospital after treatment for the injuries she sustained on the fateful night over a week ago. Sam is nervous. The Turkish school friends have overnight started posting disparaging posts about Syrians on social media. – We were fine before. There was racism, but not like it is now, she says. Photo: Julia Thommessen / news According to Sem, staying in the tent camp has been scary. She claims to have seen Syrians being physically attacked by Turks in the camp, and forced to leave it. – They tried to get us to leave the tent camp too. They stood outside and shouted. But I said we have nowhere else to go. We couldn’t travel, she says. – Do you feel that the authorities are doing something to solve this? – No not at all. They are part of the problem. Turks get better help than Syrians, they get better things and food, she claims. While the mother was hospitalized, Sem bought balls and things for the younger siblings in Antep. The five siblings are waiting for their mother and older sister in the tent camp. Photo: Julia Thommessen / news 155,000 tents distributed Senior adviser Scott Mclisky Sandvik in the Norwegian Red Cross says Syrian refugees are particularly vulnerable after the earthquake. – These are people who have escaped from a conflict that has been going on for over ten years, and even before the earthquake had great humanitarian needs. – They already have less access than the Turkish population to ordinary services such as health services, schooling, and are both poorer and marginalized compared to the Turkish host society, he says. Photo: Julia Thommessen / news Since Sunday, news has been trying to ask AFAD, which is Turkey’s crisis management agency, whether it is true that Syrians are given a lower priority in aid work. We have also asked what the agency’s aid workers are doing to reduce the tension between the local population and refugees. AFAD has so far not responded. Jamil stands straight outside the tent that was his home for eight years, which he now has to live in again. Photo: Julia Thommessen / news The Norwegian aid worker Rolf Bakken from the organization ACAPS is in the city of Hatay, and has worked with both Syrians and Turks affected by the earthquake. Bakken says he has heard of stories about Syrians being treated badly by Turks, but that he has not witnessed this himself. – I have heard that it happens in some places. It is something that has been in Turkey for a long time. Turkey is the country that has accepted the most Syrian refugees, so in such a situation as it is now, it can be easy to blame someone else, he says to news. – Syrians we have spoken to believe they are treated differently by AFAD and aid workers. do you know about this? – No, I have not heard anything about that. But I’m not going to say that’s not the case. A quantity of clothes has arrived in Islahiye, and will be distributed to the inhabitants. Syrian refugees news has spoken to believe they have to stand at the back of the queue for the clothing distribution. Photo: Julia Thommessen / news According to a press release from AFAD, more than 155,000 tents have been set up in the region. Almost 200,000 inhabitants have been evacuated from the earthquake-stricken region. The press releases from AFAD say nothing about how many people have become homeless as a result of the earthquakes. However, local relief organizations believe a million people have lost their homes in the earthquake. An analysis of the destruction in four cities, including Islahiye, by researchers at Berkeley and Planet Labs, estimates that at least 160,000 people have lived in buildings that are now destroyed. 15.6 million people are estimated to be affected in one way or another. Huseyin lived for many years in the refugee camp in Islahiye. Now he is back in the tent. Photo: Julia Thommessen / news Brothers and sisters Back at Jamil’s, he who saved on his tent from earlier, we ask if they have felt the rumors on their bodies. Are they treated differently? Are people mad at them? Neither Jamil nor his friend Huseyin have time to answer the questions before a Turkish woman breaks in. – There has never been discrimination here. We visit the Syrian families, we drink coffee, share meals. We are brothers and sisters. When they were refugees, we tried to help them, and now you are helping us, says the woman. A woman breaks in when news asks questions about whether the Syrians in the tent camp feel discriminated against. Photo: Julia Thommessen / news – No, there is no discrimination, they have welcomed us and opened their homes. But before we earned less than Turks, Huseyin begins, before being interrupted again. – It was at the beginning. Now you also earn well, she says. More Turks arrive. A man surrounds Huseyin and asks for a picture to be taken of them, to prove that they are like brothers. The man in the yellow jacket asks news to take this photo as proof that he and Syrian Huseyin are like brothers. Photo: Julia Thommessen / news – The rumors come from people who want to divide us. They are wrong, it is fake news, don’t believe them, she says. What Huseyin and Jamil feel about the rumours, we do not get an answer to. They don’t let go.
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Syrian Jamil lived in a refugee camp for eight years – now he is back in the same tent – Special
