MOSCOW, August 12 (RIA Novosti) - Fifteen cars with Syrian number plates were attacked and porters wielding clubs chased Syrians in the southern province of Kilis, Turkey, for undercutting their wages, Turkish daily Today’s Zaman reported.
“We cannot work here any longer. Our friends working at night have been threatened by Syrians and their jobs taken by these people. We ask the authorities to find a solution to this problem,” Today’s Zaman quoted one porter as saying, citing news agency Dogan.
The Turkish porters said that they could not support their families because the Syrians work for lower wages.
The attack with the clubs took place in a wholesale market on Saturday after discussion between the Turkish and Syrians failed.
Zaman also reported that a group of activists from the Say Stop to Racism and Nationalism organization staged a march against the attacks targeting Syrians in the Istanbul district of Beyoglu.
About 1.5 million Syrians who fled the civil war in their country and have taken refuge in Turkey live alongside Turkish residents and in refugee camps. Tensions among the refugees, who are now scattered across Turkey, and local residents appear to be escalating.
In another incident in May, stones were thrown and fire was set to building housing Syrian refugees in an Ankara district.
The root of the crisis is due to the many Syrian refugees trying to get to Europe via Turkey and other countries such as Libya and Morocco.
Amnesty International blamed European Union (EU) policies for the problem in a July 1 press release saying that the EU was cooperating with and funding neighboring countries like Turkey in an effort to stop migrants from entering European borders.
“The human tragedies unfolding every day at Europe’s borders are neither inevitable, nor beyond the EU’s control. Many are of the EU’s making. EU member states must, at last, start putting people before borders,” John Dalhuisen, Amnesty International's Europe and Central Asia program director, said.
