The welfare of Turkey's 3.6 million Syrian refugees, along with its 370,000 asylum seekers and an additional number of irregular migrants, is considered to be a particularly acute challenge for Turkey, as these populations are particularly vulnerable to contracting and spreading the disease^[1][2], with the associated risks being geographically heterogeneous.^[3]

Together, refugees, irregular migrants, and asylum-seekers surpass 5 million, mostly residing in towns and major cities, with only 2% in camps^[1]. In Istanbul and Sanliurfa, one in five refugees lack access to clean drinking water, and one in three lack access to hygiene items.^[3] Living quarters are crammed, and 45% of Syrian refugees in Turkey live in poverty, 14% in extreme poverty.^[3] Syrian refugees and asylum-seekers have the legal right to basic health services^[1], however Tekin-Koru writing for CEPR Public Policy notes on the contrary that, according to a 2019 Doctors of the World report, 23% of refugees do not actually have access to healthcare services in urban areas, while in rural areas that figure is 58%.^[3] While Turkish citizens receive face masks free of charge, refugees do not.^[2] Irregular migrants, meanwhile, are often afraid to seek services for fear of being detained.^[1]

Because only 3% of refugees in Turkey have official work permits^[4], and as such they were typically the first workers to be sacked.^[2][4] Syrians are often employed in jobs that cannot be done remotely.^[2] Although the Turkish parliament banned sackings of workers for three months and offered $6 monthly for those forced to take unpaid leave, none of these were applied for migrants and refugees.^[4][2] By March 30, as aid for refugees began to collapse, refugees were reported by The Independent to be found sleeping on the streets, and relying on the kindness of strangers.^[5] While in 2019, a poll estimated that 83.2% of Turks wanted all refugees returned, the pandemic caused a further rise of xenophobia and anti-refugee sentiment in Turkey^[1].

In the context of heightened conflict in Syria's Idlib province (causing fears that many of its 2.7 million inhabitants could join the millions of Syrian refugees already in Turkey) and the unpopularity of the government's prior refugee policy^[6], President Erdogan announced in late February that he would not longer "block" refugees and migrants' "access to the border", and opened the border with Greece.^[7][8] Turkey's government was then accused of pushing refugees into Europe for political gain^[9][10]. Erdogan called Greece a "Nazi country" after Greek border guards pushed the migrants back, and there were reports of plain-clothes Turkish security forces firing tear gas at Greek forces as migrants tried to breach the border fence.^[7] The Turkish-Syrian border, near Idlib, is meanwhile sealed by the world's second longest border wall, and with Turkish guards using lethal force to keep it closed.^[7]

Skele for rest: -- Turkish opening of border -- closing of border -- opening of gborder -- meanwhile, transport with Georgia and Azerbaijan cclsoed, border wall with Syria -- further analysis

--> finito, ready to add.