The Turkish state of Hatay joined the list of states that prevent the registration of civil status for Syrians in more than 40 regions within its geographical area.
The Immigration Department of the Turkish capital, Ankara, had issued a package of arbitrary decisions against the refugees in 16 new Turkish states and the 16 cities in which it is forbidden to give a permanent address to Syrians, in addition to more than 800 neighborhoods distributed in 52 states.
Last Tuesday, Turkish Interior Minister Suleiman Soylu revealed the initiation of a draft decision not to allow refugees in Turkey to move and register their civil status in 16 states where the proportion of refugees is 25%, in addition to more than 800 neighborhoods in 51 separate states.
Activist Haitham Halawani pointed out to Zaman al-Wasl that the new procedures that the state of Hatay recently joined aim to impose more restrictions of Syrians in more than 40 areas within the state.
According to Halawani, the new Turkish move depends on not allowing Syrians to have gatherings in a neighborhood or region, and that foreign residents are not allowed to exceed 25% of the neighborhood's residents.
The activist concerned with refugee affairs added that there is a tendency to voluntarily transfer Syrians who are in densely populated places to other regions and states.
Turkey hosts more than four million refugees, including more than three million Syrians, whose presence has increasingly come under public scrutiny with figures across the political spectrum blaming them for the country’s economic crisis, according to Al-Jazeera.
According to the Turkish authorities, this plan aims to control the number of Syrians in Turkish cities and towns and not to cluster them in specific areas. Halawani expressed his belief that these decisions violate the principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which stipulate the human right to move, choose his home, and exercise his personal freedoms.
The activists claim that the Turkish steps towards the Syrian refugees are related to the upcoming elections, and demanded that the file of the Syrian refugees be handed over to the United Nations High Commissioner, and that the fate of these oppressed should not be left in the hands of the government or the Turkish opposition.
The Syrian conflict has claimed 494,438 lives and has displaced 13,2 million people since it erupted in March 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-regime protests.
(Reporting by Faris Rifai)
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