I/NGOs’ Assistance to Syrian Refugees in Turkey: Opportunities and Challenges

As of February 2018, around 3.3 million Syrian refugees have been officially registered in Turkey. Several factors, including the Turkish state’s lack of experience in managing the resettlement of such a huge number of refugees, the presence of a conflict and absence of a working cooperation between the EU countries and Turkey, domestic limitations on international NGOs, and the tension between Syrians and Turks, have caused serious problems in the state’s management of refugee affairs. This article aims to discuss the role that international non-governmental organizations (I/NGOs) have been playing in managing Syrian refugees’ resettlement and access to public services by referring to the problems encountered in the field. One-to-one interviews with Syrian refugees and staff members of Syrian, Turkish, and I/NGOs in Gaziantep, Hatay, İzmir, and Şanlıurfa were conducted between June–August 2017. The research emphasizes that the Turkish government needs a well-established integration policy to resolve the problems that both Syrian refugees and Turkish citizens encounter as well as to facilitate local and I/NGOs to work more effectively to help refugees access public services and protect their basic human rights.