Anadolu Agency staff get training on refugee coverage

By Meryem Goktas

ANKARA (AA) – The Research Center on Asylum and Migration (IGAM) trained Anadolu Agency reporters on refugee representation in the media at the agency's Ankara headquarters on Tuesday.

The day-long training program had been organized by IGAM jointly with the Turkish Journalists Association on Media and civil society cooperation for rights of refugees.

The program aimed to create awareness of the way refugees were being portrayed in the Turkish media and establish a stronger relationship between the Turkish media and civil society.

Amongst the speakers was IGAM President Metin Corabatir who spoke on “history of development of international refugee law and persistent solutions”.

Murat Erdogan, professor of political science and migration at Ankara-based Hacettepe University and director of Turkey’s Migration and Politics Research Center, spoke on the Syrian crisis and its perceptions.

Additionally, Oxfam Turkey Director Meryem Aslan held a presentation on international humanitarian aid and its shortcomings.

The training is also planned in other provinces of Turkey where a high number of refugees are registered, such as Adana, Mersin, Hatay, Gaziantep and Istanbul.

Turkey has the largest refugee population in the world and is currently home to more than 3 million Syrians, according to official data.

That figure accounts for approximately 45 percent of all Syrian refugees in the region, the UN says.

An additional 300,000 refugees in the region are mostly from Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran and Somalia.