Highlights
• In February, UNICEF supported the Turkish government’s efforts to prevent and address child marriage, with a focus on capacity building. Approximately 460 staff and service providers from the government, armed forces, women’s shelters and violence prevention centres were trained on how to better identify and respond to child marriage cases.
• UNICEF also focused on expanding access to non-formal education for out-of-school refugee children. Nearly 1,100 children registered for the Accelerated Learning Programme and more than 400 registered for Turkish language courses. Outreach campaigns also identified 10,500 children (40% of whom were out of school) and referred them to relevant education opportunities.
• UNICEF Turkey is 46% funded (as of 15 March 2019) under the 2019 3RP appeal (including carry-over from the previous year), with only US $2 million received in 2019. US $10 million is urgently required to fund essential interventions for vulnerable refugee children in education and child protection.
Situation Overview & Humanitarian Needs
Turkey remains home to the largest registered refugee population in the world. Over 4 million refugees and asylum-seekers are registered in Turkey, of whom nearly 1.7 million are children.
More than 3.6 million Syrians – including over 1.5 million children – are under temporary protection, 96 per cent of whom live in host communities across the country. Turkey also hosts a sizable community of non-Syrian refugees and asylum-seekers of almost 370,000 (primarily from Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran), including some 120,000 children.
In addition, Turkey remains a transit country for unregistered refugees and migrants on the move. In February, nearly 1,500 refugees and migrants made the perilous journey by sea from Turkey to Greece and over 800 crossed by land; an additional 2,500 people were rescued or apprehended at sea or on land by Turkish authorities. Of those who have successfully crossed so far in 2019, approximately 40 per cent are believed to be children. Under the framework of the EU-Turkey Statement, 28 people were re-admitted to Turkey in January and February; the total number of re-admissions stands at 1,835 since the Statement came into effect in 2016.
The Government of Turkey leads the overall refugee response and shoulders most of the financial burden – more than US $30 billion to date, according to latest government estimates. Despite the significant progress achieved since the crisis began, its immense scale and scope continues to place enormous strain on the country’s basic services and infrastructure.
The situation for refugee children in Turkey remains particularly challenging. An estimated 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. 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. UNICEF, together with the Government of Turkey and other partners, remains focused on improving the lives of vulnerable refugee and Turkish children affected by this crisis.