Syrian refugee children in southern Turkey have never known a time without war in their home country. Last week’s devastating double earthquake has now struck their home away from home – shattering their safe haven in just one night. FRANCE 24’s reporters met Syrian refugees made homeless once more, this time in Turkey.
An estimated one million Syrians live in the areas of Turkey impacted by the February 6 earthquakes. Many have lost their homes, in a painful echo of the destruction they'd fled on the other side of the border.
FRANCE 24’s Nadia Massih and Julie Dungelhoeff met a family of Syrian refugees in the Turkish city of Kahramanmaras, close to the quake’s epicentre. Their house has been badly damaged but they have nowhere else to go.
“I’m scared, I'm scared. Whenever I go to my room, I think it will move and collapse, and then make a lot of noise,” said Fatima, stepping over the rubble of a building flattened by the tremors.
>> ‘Can anybody hear me?’: In Turkey’s quake-hit Kahramanmaras, a desperate hunt for survivors
Fatima’s brothers said they lost several friends in the quakes and helped to dig out their bodies.
“The day after the quake, the children were struggling psychologically,” said their mother, Amina. “But they’ve been forced to adapt because of the war in Syria. Every time they go out, they fear another quake or a bomb dropped by Bashar [al-Assad].”
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