Syria - IOM will start providing today non-food items including 10,000 mattresses, 10,000 pillows, 5,000 jerry cans, 1,200 diapers and 500 food baskets to the thousands of Syrian refugees who started crossing the Turkish borders after several villages in the north of Syria fell under ISIS control on 19 September, causing a massive influx of refugees within 24 hours.

As of yesterday, over 140,000 Syrians crossed the border from Ayn Al Arab into the town of Suruc in the South East of Turkey. The majority of those who fled are women and children.

IOM emergency response teams undertook a rapid needs assessment in Suruc. It was observed that all forms of humanitarian assistance were needed as many fled without any preparation and came with nothing but the clothes they were wearing. One woman mentioned that “We had nowhere to shower, we have no clothes and we waited to cross the border for over 8 hours.”
 
The Government of Turkey opened its borders and established, in a short span of time, temporary shelters  in schools, mosques and social halls and provided the refugees with food, water, hygiene items, healthcare and core relief items such as blankets and bedding. Many others were hosted by local communities in the town of Suruc with families taking up to 50 people.

The first batch of items arrived in Suruc yesterday and IOM field emergency teams in conjunction with authorities will assist with the distribution of relief items.  Additionally, IOM will continue its ongoing humanitarian assistance programme through the provision of transport assistance from camps and intra camps, transportation for children to access schools, distribution of relief for Syrians outside the camps and support to other sectors in coordination with UN agencies and the Prime Ministry Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD).

There are more than 1,350,000 Syrian refugees in Turkey of whom some 220,000 reside in 22 camps in 10 provinces.

For more information, please contact

Filiz Demir
IOM Syria
Email: fdemir@iom.int
Tel:+ 05383358669