As Turkey reels under the immediate humanitarian and the long-term economic burdens of the deadly February 6 earthquake, one group of people feels pressured to consider leaving the country.
For about 12 years, Turkey has hosted the largest refugee population in the world – over 4 million people. Most are from neighboring Syria, and some from other war-torn countries such as Afghanistan.
The earthquake killed more than 47,000 people in Turkey and Syria, among them at least 1,500 Syrian refugees. Millions of people are homeless inside the two countries.
"We do not know the exact number of refugees impacted and we might not for some days, but we fear the number might be significant given the epicenter of the quake was close to areas with high concentrations of refugees," Shabia Mantoo, a UNHCR spokesperson, told VOA.
The U.N. has appealed for more than $1.4 billion in immediate humanitarian response.
Already 102 countries have offered assistance, according to the Turkish government, with the U.S. on top of the list of donors with $185 million in funding, followed by $100 million from the United Arab Emirates.
Amid widespread needs for shelter, food and basic services in the quake-stricken regions in Turkey, anti-refugee sentiments have intensified and there are growing calls for refugees to leave.
"Anti-refugee sentiment in Turkey has spiked. Syrians have become the target of a misinformation campaign accusing them of looting destroyed homes and stealing aid or blaming them as the reason for the cataclysm hitting Turkey," Raphael Marcus, senior vice president of programs at HIAS, a refugee support organization, told VOA in emailed answers.
Finding life more difficult in Turkey, some 20,000 Syrians have returned to Syria in the aftermath of the earthquake, the Turkish government has confirmed.
Exodus to Europe?
Last week, the World Food Program (WFP) called on European countries to provide more assistance to post-quake relief efforts before desperate refugees starting knocking at their doors.
"Time is running out and we are running out of money. Our operation is about $50 million a month for our earthquake response alone, so unless Europe wants a new wave of refugees, we need get the support we need," the WFP's director, David Beasley, was quoted as saying to Reuters.
In 2015, more than a million refugees and migrants, mostly Syrians and Afghans, entered European countries prompting the European Union to strike a deal with Ankara to stop people from irregularly traveling from Turkey to European countries in return for aid and visa-free entry to Europe for Turkish citizens.
"I don't think there will be a 2015-like exodus of refugees to Europe," Kemal Kirişci, an expert at the Brookings Institution, told VOA, "but there will be an increase in the number of people attempting to enter Europe from Turkey."
In the aftermath of the earthquake, the Turkish government has lifted restrictions on the movement of refugees inside Turkey in order to facilitate their relocation to camps and communities outside the earthquake zones.
Kirişci said most Syrian refugees are families with women and children who are largely integrated into Turkish communities, but migrants from other countries are mostly single men who might be willing to embark on risky journeys to Europe.
"There is no hope left for us here," Hussain Ali, an Afghan migrant in Istanbul, told VOA. "Everyone I know tries to gather a few thousand dollars and head for Europe," he added.
Smugglers charge $4,000 to $6,000 per person from Turkey to Greece for dangerous trips by water. Some 3,500 migrants died trying to make the treacherous journey in 2014.
Despite the costs and risks, the number of migrants arriving in Europe has nearly doubled over the past two years from 620,000 in 2021 to almost a million in 2022. About 260,000 of the registered asylum-seekers last year were Afghans and Syrians, according to the European Union Agency for Asylum.
