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Refugees stranded as Turkey closes border

Fady Salah / August 27, 2012 / 1 Comment / 585 Views

With 80,000 refugees have already crossed its borders, Turkey declares it’s a “great burden”

Stranded on the border with Turkey, a Syrian mother takes care of her children after they were displaced from their houses due to fighting between rebel fighters and Syrian government forces on 25 August
AFP PHOTO / ARIS MESSINIS

Turkey moved to stop the flow of refugees from war torn Syria by blocking two key border checkpoints in the south of the country, leaving 7,000 Syrian refugees stranded. So far, more than 80,000 Syrian refugees have entered Turkish territory.

This number is expected to increase as the escalating wave of violence in Syria is causing more Syrians to flee towards the borders, in their struggle to survive by entering the south Turkish territories.

However, in an official warning, Turkish officials have declared that they would be able to host a maximum of 100,000 Syrian refugees, and it looks like this number won’t be enough, as the massacres continue in Syria every day.

Turkey is currently making efforts to convince the United Nations to establish a safe zone on the Syrian side of the border, to keep the refugees from flooding across into Turkey.