House offers brief haven as pressure builds on Turkish-Syrian border

Abdo Shakh quietly sips tea in the corner of a house just north of the Oncupinar crossing on the Turkish-Syrian border. He is one of hundreds of residents who have passed through this temporary border home for Syrians injured in the civil war.

Quiet and reserved, with just a few words of English, Shakh (24) looks like any of the Syrian men who wander the streets of Turkey after fleeing their homeland. It soon becomes apparent, however, that he is not.

As a friend points to his legs, Shakh lifts up his trousers to reveal two prosthetic limbs.

The young man lost his legs after stepping on a bomb in the countryside near Aleppo. His friend says it was a cluster bomb. These are not like normal bombs, or the air strikes being undertaken by Russia, Shakh explains. Their remnants lie in the ground unnoticed until they explode without warning, sometimes weeks after they were dropped.

Having paid smugglers to travel across the border, Shakh spent a month in the respite home for refugees. The house was set up in 2012 by Syrians to help fellow Syrians. It depends on volunteer contributions for supplies and is supported by associations such as the IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation.

Twelves patients are currently staying in the house, which is located about a 1km north of the Oncupinar border crossing, where thousands of Syrians have amassed on the other side.

No medical staff are employed. Rather, it is a place where injured or sick Syrians come to recuperate after receiving treatment either in Syrian or Turkish hospitals.

Huge pressures

The conflict in Syria has resulted in some 11.5 per cent of the population killed or injured, according to a report by the Syrian Centre for Policy Research this week. The war has put enormous pressure on health services on both sides of the border.

As the steady flow of ambulances shuttling to and from across the border demonstrates, Turkey is actively involved in efforts to help the sick and wounded.

A kilometre further north at the main Kilis public hospital, a mix of Turkish and Syrian patients wait to be seen outside the entrance. Two Syrian women from the local refugee camp are here to have tests done.

Ambulances with emergency cases arrive from the far side of the border carrying patients whose injuries are too serious to be treated in the hospitals and medical facilities in northern Syria. The more seriously wounded are taken to hospitals in the city of Gaziantep, 50km away.

Médecins Sans Frontières, which runs six hospitals directly in Syria and supports more than 150 medical facilities there, is daily ferrying personnel and supplies into Syria from the Turkish side.

While the health situation in northern Syria is deteriorating – five of nine hospitals in the Azaz district have closed in the last 10 days – MSF's Sam Taylor says the situation has not yet reached catastrophic levels from a health perspective. Aid and equipment are, at least, still being allowed through.

Despite Turkey’s refusal to open the Oncupinar crossing to the swell of more than 30,000 people gathered along the Syrian border, there has been co-operation between health care authorities in both regions.

While Turkey has managed to avoid involvement in the ground conflict unfolding on its southern border, it has been profoundly affected in other ways.

The last five years has seen more than 2.6 million Syrians arrive in Turkey. Only a small percentage are residing in refugee camps. Most are living among other Syrians in cities and towns across the country of 78 million. Many, particularly the better-off, arrived in the early months and years of the conflict and took rented accommodation, though they were not legally permitted to work.

According to the International Rescue Committee, about 370,000 Syrian refugees are now living in Istanbul. By some estimates, the town of Kilis has seen its population swell from about 80,000 to close to 200,000 since the onset of the Syrian civil war.

Accepting refugees

Despite Turkey’s commendable record in accepting more refugees than the 28 countries of the EU are collectively willing to take in, there are tensions between the two communities.

Turkey’s booming economy and demand for cheap labour may be one reason behind Istanbul’s recent decision to grant Syrian refugees work permits, there have been reports of Syrians taking low-paying jobs on the black market. In some towns, rents have risen due to the influx in people.

There has been no repeat of the August 2014 events in Gaziantep, which saw the government send hundreds of Syrians to refugee camps following the murder of a Turkish landlord by his Syrian tenant.

Still, Turkey's willingness to accept any more Syrians appears to be fading. This week president Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened to allow newly arriving Syrians to travel on to Europe, warning that his country could no longer cope.

For the fresh wave of Syrians arriving at the border, the outlook looks increasingly grim.

Mohammed (22), a student who paid people-smugglers to reach Turkey last month, says he ultimately wants to return to Damascus and finish his studies as a medical technician.

Standing metres from the border, Mohammed is despondent about the future.

"I am nobody here," he says. "I can't work. I can't finish my studies. Some of my friends are in Germany, but they tell me they are like trapped animals in a cage. They don't work and they've nothing to do.

"We've even heard that in Sweden and Denmark they are taking people's jewellery. Is that true? It's not a life here."