The man worked at the camp as a cleaner, and would pay the boys, aged 8-12, 2-5 lira ($0.70-1.70) to abuse them in camp bathrooms, away from the sight of cameras.
These abuses came to light when one of the victims told his father. The accused, by way of defending his actions, said that managers and other employees also molested children. Others families were aware of this misconduct, but didn’t report it for fear of being deported.The camp, called Nizip, located in southeast Turkey in a city called Gaziantep, houses about a tenth of Turkey’s Syrian refugee population, which numbers about 2.7 million. It is run by the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority, which claims that it was unaware that widespread molestation was taking place.
These revelations come as a shock to citizens in a country that prides itself on humanitarianism. German Chancellor Merkel visited the Nizip camp, along with European Council President Donald Tusk, on April 23, greeted by Syrian girls carrying a gift of flowers. Tusk praised the camp, saying "Turkey is the best example for the whole world on how we should treat refugees."
