"Turkey has done remarkable job in hosting Syrians "

ANKARA (AA) - August 29, 2012 - UN Refugee Agency's representative in Turkey has said Turkey has done a remarkable job in hosting the Syrians who have fled the violence in their country. 

"Turkey has done a remarkable job in receiving people and providing for them. In deed, no country should be in a position to cope with this alone," said Carol Batchelor, Representative of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Turkey, in an exclusive interview with AA on Wednesday.
"The UN and the UN Refugee Agency certainly is ready, able and willing to assist the authorities in responding to this crisis in Turkey and in other host countries," Batchelor also said.
Praising Turkey's policy on refugees, the representative said, "Turkey has a very long and rich tradition of providing protection for people who are fleeing persecution, who have fear and who need protection. UNHCR has been working in Turkey for over 50 years with the Turkish government and Turkish people ensuring that protection will be provided to those who are in need. So UNHCR is very grateful for Turkey's general policy on ensuring access to protection for those who are in need. And we see this again in action with regard to Syrians."
Recalling that the first Syrians in need of protection had arrived in April 2011, Batchelor said Turkey had immediately declared that there was an open border and no one would be forced to return. 
"This is a recognized international legal status which essentially reinforces that there is access to protection, civilians who are in need can come, no one is forced to return and we are very pleased with and very grateful for this policy," she said.

-Camps hosting defected Syrian army members

Upon a question on whether it was normal for the camps hosting the defected Syrian army members in Turkey to have a different status, Batchelor said, "This is normal under international law that those who are former military are separated from the civilians".
Batchelor also said majority of people in the camps in Turkey were women, children and elderly. 
"These are civilians, these are people who very much need to be protected, they have special needs and it is important that those who have laid down their weapons who are former military are separated from the civilian camps. They must also be protected. But the international legal regime for protecting them is in deed different. And it is important that they are separated and Turkey has followed that policy," she noted. 

-Camps in Turkey are of high standard

Batchelor also said that she had visited the camps in Turkey together with officials from the headquarters of her agency.
"We have been impressed with both the quality of the assistance that is provided and the consistency. People have had shelters, they have had food, medicine is supplied to people who come wounded. This is very important, the standards have been good, very high standards. Again we applaud Turkey for this undertaking," she said.
"We want to assist and support and ensure that these approaches are sustainable within the UN. UNHCR has existed now for 61 years, we have extensive experience on managing camps in the short and long term. It is important that the approaches and procedures can be sustainable and we are working closely with the government of Turkey in that regard," she continued.

-Cooperation with Turkish government

Responding to a question on the level of cooperation between the UNHCR and Agency regarding aids, Batchelor said Turkey had made it clear in the early days that it could manage the situation.
"So for much of the first few months, there was not a lot of assistance given from external agencies because Turkey had made clear that it was not needed. However, the numbers as you know have unfortunately grown substantially, the needs have grown substantially and the duration has now carried on for almost a year and a half," she said. 
She noted that the UN Refugee Agency had provided Turkey with over 20,000 family tents, 160,000 blankets, 10,000 bed mats and almost 15,000 kitchen sets, some of which had been used for victims of the major Van earthquake.
"We are working very actively with our donors and partners and within the UN system to ensure that, as the need and numbers grow, the UN and all of its agencies are in a position to provide the support whether it is education, healthcare, shelter, sanitation or food," she said.

-Conditions to set up a buffer zone

Upon a question on the conditions required to set up a buffer zone for Syrians, Batchelor said safety and legitimacy were two major necessities.
"There are two conditions that really have to be in place. One is that it is safe. In order for safety to be there, there needs to be some kind of protection given to that place. And the second is that it needs to be legitimate under international law," she said.

-UNHCR spokesperson's remarks on Syrian refugees

When asked about UNHCR spokesperson Sybella Wilkes' latest remarks claiming that number of Syrian refugees in Turkey could rise up to 200,000 soon, Batchelor said, the UN Refugee Agency was not in a position to predict numbers, and in fact, it worked with the international community on the hope and aspiration that people could actually return to their country. 
"It's not that the UN or UNHCR expects people to flee, but we have to be prepared in the event that they have no choice but to flee. Now, we are working with the host countries in the region and having discussions about what would the extent of that preparedness be. It's not only for Turkey, but also Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq. It's possible that there would be very substantial numbers if things went in a much worse direction. So, the challenge that we put through ourselves is that we must be prepared to assist Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq with significant numbers," she said.