Syrian refugee is one in 30,000
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Every day on WorldNow we choose a striking photo from around the world. Today we spotted this shot from Turkey, where Syrian refugees have fled to avoid carnage and chaos at home.
This little girl in red, seen walking among the tents at the Reyhanli Refugee Camp in Antakya, is one of about 30,000 Syrians who are estimated to have fled to neighboring countries in the last year, as the country has been rocked by an uprising against President Bashar Assad.
The Times recently visited Lebanon to talk to Syrian refugees. They shared harrowing stories:
During a pause in the shelling, Um Mahmood and her 9-year-old son ducked out of their house together in Baba Amr, the most contested neighborhood in the Syrian city of Homs. Their entire family of nine had been waiting for a chance to flee the government onslaught, and rebels had just sent word that they should use the lull to get out. But as Um Mahmood and her son hurried along a dirt road, several shells landed nearby, knocking them to the ground. Other family members scattered. The boy got up and ran, but Um Mahmood couldn’t. For 15 minutes as the shells fell, she lay frozen to the spot, afraid that moving would make her a target. Finally, a rebel came to drag her to safety.
Turkey is sheltering more than 13,000 people in seven camps managed by the government, the United Nations refugee agency recently reported. Turkish media say another camp is in the works.
‘Authorities said a wave of migration from Syria into Turkey has already started, and they expect about 50,000 people will arrive in total,’ the Turkish daily Today’s Zaman wrote Wednesday.
Some Turks have been uneasy about the refugee influx, so much so that it could end up driving foreign policy and push Turkey to intervene in Syria, international relations expert Soli Ozel told the Voice of America.
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-- Emily Alpert in Los Angeles