Yezidi refugees without passports denied access to Turkey

by

In his last speech he held as the head of AKP last week, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan claimed:

“The only country that opened its doors to the Yezidis is Turkey, we have accepted 2 thousand Yezidis and are sending help to them.”

Opposite claims are rising from villages accepting Yezidis. Interviews with fleeing Yezidis indicate that many refugees without passports have been declined access to Turkey.

Had to leave their 6 month old baby
The Yezidi couple Neiya Xeyro-Süleyman Haşim Xamur, who fled from the threatening posed by ISIS in Sincar region, had to leave their 6 months old baby in Iraq, as he did not have a passport. The couple, who settled down in the Kumgeçidi village of Batman, left their baby in the town Zaho to some of their relatives.

Süleyman Xamur said: “I passed the border with my wife and three children, as we had passports. But we were not allowed to take our 6 month old son Aydın with us, as he did not have any passport. The only thing we want now is to get our son back to us. We just want him to get back.”

According to Firat News, hundreds of Yezidi families without passport have been halted by Turkish soldiers.

Refugee camps have been set up at the Silopi border and hundreds of refugees accommodate here. Others have been transported to nearby cities, including Silopi, Cizre, Mardin, Batman, Diyarbakir and Sanliurfa.  An official report on how many Yezidi refugees are accommodating in Turkey at the moment would not be representative, as many have crossed the borders illegally.