Syrian Refugees Flock To Border To Flee Turkey Quake Wreckage

Cilvegozu, Turkey, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 17th Feb, 2023 ) :Syrian refugees living in Turkey sought to get back to their war-torn country on Friday after swathes of their adopted home were destroyed by last week's earthquake.

Hundreds queued at the Cilvegozu border crossing in southeast Turkey following the quake, which has killed more than 41,000 people and displaced millions across both countries.

Abbas Albakour, 48, said his home in Kahramanmaras, near the quake's epicentre in Turkey, had been completely destroyed.

"In Syria, there have been problems for 12 years.

But right now the biggest catastrophe is in Turkey," he said while queueing in the open air with two of his children and a mound of luggage destined for Syria's Idlib province.

"In one minute everything fell," he said.

Nearly four million Syrians have settled in Turkey after fleeing a civil war that has devastated swathes of the country over the past 12 years, killed nearly half a million people and displaced millions more.

The 11 Turkish provinces hit by the February 6 disaster are home to 1.74 million migrants, according to the United Nations.