(Zaman Al Wasl)- A Syrian refugee family of 5 was found in a refugee shelter in the Asian side of Istanbul in Turkey tafter hree days of displacement and losing contact with realtives.
The family, consisting of a father, mother and four children, experienced a harsh detention experience after Turkish police arrested them last week for not having identity cards or passports on their way from Hatay to Istanbul. They were detained for 5 days when they entered the Asian side.
After the police interrogated and took their finger prints, the mother and her children were released on November 21 , whereas the father remained in detention for unknown reasons.
Ali Khalil, one of the family's relatives, told Zaman al-Wasl that his relatives, Ahmad al-Abd and his wife Raghda al-Abdullah, and their four children Mohammed, Ali, Abdullah and Marwan came to Turkey from the northern outskirts of Idlib to escape the war after they paid smugglers $ 700 for each of them.
After they arrived in the Asian side of Istanbul on November 16 they were stopped by a checkpoint and arrested for not holding any identification documents.
Khalil added that the mother and her children boarded a bus and got off near Ataturk Airport. She did not have a phone or money, and she did not know where she was and stayed with her children in the streets and parks for three days.
Khalil says her the search for the family began. They went first to the security department in Istanbul, Asia, which advised them to search for them in the United Nations' shelters for missing persons.
The family was found in one of them and they were in dire state. The family now lives in Mohammed Akef neighborhood in Istanbul, Europe with relatives without a home for lack of money with them.
They cannot afford to rent a house as they need to pay four thousand Turkish liras and they need personal identities "Kimlik" to be able to move and manage their life. The family are afraid of being deported to Syria at any moment.
He went on to say that the husband was released the next day from detention and he was shocked that his wife and the children were deported from the Asian side of Istanbul. When he went to the police, the police told him the famiy were released and they do not know their whereabouts.
Khalil says her the search for the family began. They went first to the security department in Istanbul, Asia, which advised them to search for them in the United Nations' shelters for missing persons. The family was found in one of them and they were in dire state.
Meanwhile, the family is temporarily living in Mohammed Akef neighborhood in Istanbul with relatives. The mother and her children are afraid of being deported to Syria at any moment. By Faris Rifai
Zaman A Wasl
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