Turkish police suppresses Syrian refugees protest, child died

(Translation by Yusra Ahmed)

A child girl died and many fainted in Derik camp for Syrian refugees near Turkish Mardin city on Monday as a result of using tear gas, rubber bullets and water to suppress a protest for Syrians inside the camp.

Zaman al-Wasl source said many Syrian youths protested inside the camp and threatened of hunger strike as a protest for the indiscriminate arresting they were subject to and bringing them to the over-crowded camp without knowing their charges. 

The source mentioned that arresting campaigns targeted Syrians in many cities in Turkey since last Monday where young people, women and even elderly were arrested, under many claims including controlling the illegal immigration. The source confirmed that many of arrested people in the camp have their permission to stay in Turkey.

The source mentioned that he was arrested with his friends while they were eating in a restaurant in Izmir, where the police attacked them and arrested them for not renewing the card of permission to stay in the country. He mentioned that they were forced to sign papers in Turkish language even without the presence of an interpreter, to discover later that they signed on confession of being beggars. After that they were put in coaches and transferred to Derik camp. They have been there for a week without contacting them by any official body. 

The camp’s residents suffer of hard living conditions and over crowdedness besides lack of drinking water and shortage in food, which exaggerated the bad effects of the hot weather causing spread of diseases and infections.