Felat Bozarslan / Diyarbakır, Feb 29 () - Asylum seekers who have fled the conflict in Iraq and Syria are not recognized as refugees in Turkey, while Yazidis are not offered equal rights, urged the Diyarbakır Bar Children’s Rights Center.

According to a report released by the Children’s Rights Center, Yazidis from Iraq’s Sinjar face discrimination as the rights for free health care offered to Syrian asylum seekers are excluded for Yazidis.

The report focuses on the Diyarbakır Fidanlık camp where Yazidis were placed after the Islamic State’s (IS) attacks in 2014 by the Diyarbakır Bar. It adresses the alleged human rights violations in the camp.

Lawyers' research on the field reiterated that thousands of Yazidis were slaughtered by the IS, adding that most of these people have starved to death or died of thirst.

According to the report, most of these Yazidis, a population reaching 30 thousand people, were placed in camps containing 850 tents installed by the municipalities.

However, none of the official state institutions have given support to the camp, the report warned. A public mandate sent to official hospitals ordered free medical care for asylum seekers from Syria, but discriminated Yazidis from Iraq, according to Diyarbakır Bar.

“Only secondary and tertiary medical care are provided in these camps, within unofficial registries, while these health services are provided by sensible volunteers. While only obligatory cases were registered to be paid, only Dicle University Medical Faculty Hospital is owed up to 200 thousand liras” said the statement of the Chamber of Doctors and Health Laborers Union.

In this mechanism based on voluntary support, some 470 people had surgeries, 90 women gave birth and 74 women had an abortion, urged the report.

Syrians and Iraqis are not recognized as refugees and face a procedure of “temporary asylum seekers” although returning to their home countries would be a life threat, added the report. However, the existing international agreement define Yazidis as refugees, it stressed.

The report described the procedure as part of “discriminative policies” and called on officials to recognize the legal status of Yazidis dispersed in the region. It urged on the necessary arrangements for free medical care in official hospitals.

The Diyarbakır Bar’s Children’s Rights Center called on Turkey's Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) as well as the Red Crescent to “do their duty”. 

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