Highlights
• At the start of 2019, Turkey continues to host the largest registered refugee population in the world with over 4 million refugees and asylumseekers registered, of whom over 1.7 million are children.
• UNICEF supported the Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Services (MoFLSS) on implementation of the Child Development and Support Programme. A total of 71 MoFLSS technical staff were trained as master trainers and will in turn train additional 1,000 social service personnel, working in 1,200 child care homes caring for approximately 12,000 Turkish and refugee children.
• In January 2019, 487,089 refugee children benefitted from the Conditional Cash Transfer for Education (CCTE) payment, including 1,066 children enrolled in the Accelerated Learning Programme. Families also received a TL 100 "Back to School" top-up payment to help them meet additional expenses at the beginning of the new semester
Situation Overview & Humanitarian Needs
At the start of 2019, Turkey continues to host the largest registered refugee population in the world, with over 4 million refugees and asylum-seekers registered in Turkey, of whom over 1.7 million are children.
Over 3.6 million Syrians – including 1.6 million children – are under temporary protection, 96 per cent of whom live in host communities across the country.1 Turkey also continues to host a sizable non-Syrian refugee community.
Almost 370,000 non-Syrians (primarily from Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran) have sought asylum and international protection in Turkey, including some 120,000 children.Turkey continues also to serve as a transit country for unregistered refugees and migrants on the move, many of them risking their lives – as well as the lives of their children – to seek protection or greater opportunities in Europe. While the EU-Turkey Statement, signed in 2016, has significantly reduced the flow of people into the EU, in January 2019, 2,079 refugees and migrants made the perilous journey by sea from Turkey to Greece and over 579 crossed by land. In addition, 55 refugees and migrants made the journey by land from Turkey to Bulgaria. An estimated one third of those who crossed are believed to be children. In January, there were no recorded returns of people to Turkey under the framework of the EUTurkey Statement, hence to date the total number of re-admissions remains 1,821 since the Statement came into effect.
The situation for refugee children in Turkey remains challenging. It is estimated that some 400,000 Syrian children remain out-of-school and face difficulties such as a lack of awareness of available services, language barriers, socio-economic obstacles, and dropout at the secondary school level. Refugee and migrant children – particularly those out-of-school – are also acutely susceptible to numerous protection risks, including isolation, discrimination, and various forms of exploitation.
Moreover, years of conflict and displacement continue to have a significant impact on their psycho-social well-being which, if not addressed, can have a lasting negative impact on their development. And as many vulnerable families struggle to meet their basic needs, they are increasingly resorting to negative coping mechanisms – such as engaging in child labour and child marriage – instead of sending their children to school.
The Government of Turkey (GoT) continues to lead the overall refugee response and shoulders most of the financial burden –more than US $30 billion to date, according to the data from GoT – generously providing support to refugees via public services. Nevertheless, despite the progress achieved to date, the immense scale of the refugee crisis continues to place enormous strain on the country’s basic services and infrastructure. In 2019,the humanitarian situation in Turkey is expected to remain relatively stable, though the UN continues to maintain contingency plans should the situation inside northern Syria (particularly Idlib and Aleppo) deteriorate markedly. UNICEF, together with GoT and other partners, remains focused on improving the lives of these children, and helping to prevent a lost generation of Syrians.