Refugees have become an election concern in Turkey.
Our correspondent Bora Bayraktar reported: “Reyhanlı, at Turkey’s with Syria, is one of the towns that’s been affected the most by the neighbouring country’s civil war. Its population has almost doubled since the conflict started.”
A minority of these refugees live in camps. The vast majority live side by side with the local population. As a result, rents have soared, food has become more expensive, and the price of manpower has slumped. For any labour-intensive activity in Reyhanlı, Syrian refugees are employed for less than local workers.
A small business owner said: “For example, building a wall should be worth something like 50 lira [around 17 euros]. But Syrians will undercut that price, and it’s rough on the people of Reyhanlı.”
Another resident said: “Cross-border trade has dried up. That used to provide a livelihood for around 70 per cent of the people here. Now it has stopped.”
While, according to a third: “Since
