Syrian refugees in Turkey exceed 137.000: Minister

The number of Syrians who have crossed into Turkey to flee the deadly violence that has engulfed their home country for the last 20 months has exceeded 137,000, Interior Minister Besir Atalay announced on Dec. 12. "At the moment, there are 137,756 people who have taken shelter in Turkey after fleeing the internal conflict in Syria," Atalay said at the opening of a meeting held with senior officials to coordinate efforts regarding Syrian refugees, noting that these people were living in tent and container cities. The actual number is likely to be much higher since the official figures do not include the tens of thousands of Syrians who are unregistered and living in Turkish homes. Turkey established a total of 13 tent cities in addition to a container city in Kilis, which is capable of hosting 12,000 refugees. There are five tent cities in Hatay, two of them in Sanliurfa, three of them in Gaziantep and one each in Kahramanmaras, Osmaniye and Adiyaman.