Syrian refugee doctors serve fellow refugees in Turkey

By Halil Ibrahim Sincar

MARDIN, Turkey (AA) – Healthcare centers in southeastern Turkey that serve Syrian refugees are getting extra help in the form of staffers who also fled war-torn Syria.

Four Syrian refugee doctors, two nurses, and four sanitation employees are working at two healthcare centers in the southeastern Mardin province, Saffet Yavuz, a local health bureau chief, told Anadolu Agency.

He said that two more healthcare centers will soon be set up in the province’s Midyat and Nusaybin districts.

Under a project by the Turkish Health Ministry and the EU, the Babi-Sifa Refugee Healthcare Centers opened this February in Mardin’s Kiziltepe and Artuklu districts.

“I wish we could have done this in our country, but there are hostilities there,” said Dr. Abdullah El Hatip from Damascus, who is working at the Artuklu center.

“Now we’re helping [refugees like us] here. God willing, we hope the war will soon end and we’ll do the same in our country,” he added, expressing thanks for all the support Turkey has given the refugees.

Syria has only just begun to emerge from a devastating civil war that began in 2011. Since then, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed in the conflict and millions more displaced, according to the UN.

Turkey currently hosts nearly 3.5 million Syrian refugees, more than any other country in the world.