ANKARA, Turkey – Turkey is bracing for a new, massive influx of refugees from Syria and authorities are building a new camp on the border to house some of the arrivals.
Officials from Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) say that some 100,000 refugees could flood in through the Oncupinar border in the first day after a potential attack by the Islamic State (ISIS) group.
“Such a refugee inflow scares us. That would create a huge risk on our side, even though we have existing capabilities,” the Hurriyet Daily newspaper quoted an AFAD official as saying.
The disaster agency said it is building a new camp for 55,000 refugees in Kilis, a town on the Syrian border that already houses 123,000 refugees – more than its own population of 108,000.
The preparations by AFAD follow a risk assessment by the National Security Council (MGK) last week that envisages the ruling regime in Syria allowing free passage to ISIS to attack forces fighting to topple the government of Bashar al-Assad, the newspaper said.
Turkey believes that the regime bombing of opposition forces since June was part of a plan that allowed the ISIS takeover of northern Aleppo from the Free Syrian Army (FSA).
Turkey is hosting nearly 2 million Syrian war refugees, with around 278,000 housed in 28 camps, mostly on the border.
“In fact, we are not very keen to announce such new camps because it would be regarded as encouraging Syrians to leave their homes even if there is no need,” Hurriyet quoted AFAD Chairman Fuat Oktay telling reporters.
Oktay said the camps are used as temporary housing as the refugees adapt to their new lives, before starting to live with Turks in residential areas.
He added that his agency has been working towards the “harmonization and co-habitation” of Turks and Syrians through intensive education programs.
“There is an immense interest among Syrians to learn Turkish. We can hardly manage this through special courses,” he said.
The United Nations warns that the world is facing the worst refugee crisis in recent human history. Humanitarian groups remain overwhelmed by the devastating war in Syria that has been dragging on for five years. Millions of civilians have lost their homes and livelihood.
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