There are thousands of Afghan refugees in several Turkish cities in deplorable conditions. Settled by The United Nations High Commission for Refugees, those refugees have no permission of inter-city travel and the right to movement choosing place of residence. The Coordination Committee of Afghan Refugees has been calling on the international community, particularly the UN Human Rights Commission to visit camps of Afghan refugees and see the terrible conditions they are living in.
Despite several appeals to the UN and other international human rights organizations, there has not been any attention to their plight. Recently they campaigned to gain attention of the UN General Secretary Ban-ki Moon, but all in vain. They want the international community to help them attain the right to access basic needs such as healthcare and right to work to feed their families in Turkey.
According to the Amnesty International, Turkey is a signatory of the UN Refugee Convention that has a policy of not recognizing people outside the Council of Europe as refugees. UNHCR processes the claims from thousands of refugees from Middle East and South Asia including Afghanistan.
We urge the UN to take notice of the plight of Afghan refugees in Turkey who live in worst conditions and are deprived of the rights to access healthcare and work to earn their bread. With the harsh winter underway, thousands of Afghan refugees are living in parks and open groups sleeping under open sky at nights.
Similarly, Afghan refugees in Greece are going through much worse conditions not only facing torture and inhumane treatment from the officials, but also come under regular attacks from racist groups.
In recent months, the number of Afghans fleeing the country has increased due to worsening situation, unemployment and fear of an insecure future. While on the other hand, industrialized western nations who accept refugee and asylum claims have tightened their policies, pushing them back.
As long as wars and conflicts continue in the world, people continue fleeing their home countries because of insecurity and other reasons will not stop or decrease, no matter how harsh and inhuman the policies of so-called civilized industrial nations become towards refugees. Government of western countries where largest number of refugees reaches in hope of shelter and asylum should adopt a merciful policy towards the deplorable conditions of asylum seekers. The UN needs to make efforts helpful to reduce poverty, end conflicts and insecurity so that people are not forced to flee their homes.