Refugees Protest in İstanbul: "No Food for Us"

Refugees kept in a refugee camp of the Aliens Department in the Istanbul district of Fatih/Kumkapı revolted to draw attention to their poor living conditions.
Emine ÖZCAN
emine@bianet.org
Istanbul - BİA News Center
21 September 2009, Monday

About a hundred refugees broke the barred windows of the 4-storey building they are kept in and threw their beds, blankets, brooms, plastic plates and plastic bottles out of the windows to push for some administrative action.

The refugees shouted their problems from the windows to members of the press, claiming that they are not given food. The Kumkapı refugee camp accommodates refugees who are supposed to be sent back to their home countries.

The police was not able to intervene properly because the governor's permission would have been needed for an intervention. The police surrounded the building with a security line so nobody was able to approach the house. The refugees stopped their protest after a while.

Same problems have continued since last year

Last year the refugees organized the same kind of protest to draw attention to their living conditions. Metin Çorabatır, Turkish spokesman of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), explained to bianet: "We cannot reach the refugee camps. We are being hindered to bring legal and humanitarian help to those people deprived from their freedom".

Özlem Dalkıran from the Refugee Program of the Helsinki Citizens Assembly (HCA) argued: "The state catches these people and takes them under its supervision. A minimum of human living conditions must be provided. Everyone must be provided with a bed to sleep, nutritious food, access to health services and with the outside world. If they have money they can make telephone calls. But after such a revolt these rights can be taken from them". (EZÖ/VK)

http://bianet.org/english/minorities/117175-refugees-protest-no-food-for...