DAVUTOGLU, GUTERRES VISIT SYRIAN REFUGEE CAMP IN TURKEY

Ankara, 16 Rabi’ul Awwal 1435/18 January 2014 (MINA) – United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres and Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu met with Syrian refugees staying at a container camp in the southeastern Turkish city of Sanliurfa on Friday.

Attended by officials from Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey, as well as the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the second ‘Ministerial Meeting of Syria-bordering Countries’ is being held at Harran Container Camp, in which more than 14,000 Syrians are registered as refugees. Anadolu Agency quoted by Mi’raj News Agency (MINA) as reporting.

During their visit to the preschool at the camp, Davutoglu, Guterres and Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari presented toys to the children.

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The group later visited an art exhibition titled ‘Life in Syria from the Eye of Children’, comprising paintings made by the children of the camp.

More than 100,000 people have been killed in the three-year-old conflict in Syria and over two million Syrians are now registered as refugees in neighboring countries, Turkey, Lebanon and Iraq, according to the UN.

More than 2.5 million Syrians have fled their homes since the outbreak of civil war in March 2011, taking refuge in neighbouring countries or within Syria itself. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), over 600,000 have fled to immediate neighbours Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq. Yet the real number of Syrians refugees in these countries is much higher – perhaps double UNHCR statistics, which only record those officially registered as refugees.

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This website offers a snapshot of the repercussions of this refugee crisis for both Syria’s neighbours and the European Union. It is a project of the Migration Policy Centre at the European University Institute, based on a series of studies conducted by local researchers on behalf of the MPC at the end of 2012. This website is the result of close collaboration between a team of journalists and these local researchers, under the auspices of the MPC, to paint a broad picture of the worst refugee crisis to affect the region in years.

This website also examines the role played by the European Union: both in providing humanitarian aid as well as accepting refugees. While the EU is a leading aid contributor to the region, evidence shows that an expected refugee influx did not materialize.(T/P012/P04/mirajnews.com)

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Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)