![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/10_29_2011_1215cVZEFh1gkc3NniKv.jpg\" "\\"10_29_2011_1215cVZEFh1gkc3NniKv\\"")
Afghan: Afghan refugee Nergis Shovar washes dishes in muddy water in front of the tent that’s been home since a devastating 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck eastern Turkey last week.<\/p>\nAFP<\/p>\n
Sat Oct 29 2011 12:25:52 GMT+0400 (Arabian Standard Time) Oman Time<\/p>\n
Afghan: Afghan refugee Nergis Shovar washes dishes in muddy water in front of the tent that’s been home since a devastating 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck eastern Turkey last week.<\/p>\n
“My house collapsed during the quake… I fled the house. Now I am living here with my family,” she said, speaking through a translator, adding that 13 people were living in the tent.<\/p>\n
The 18-year-old is just one of around 2,000 refugees in the quake-hit Van province, mostly Afghans, many of whom have seen their homes damaged or destroyed in the October 23 quake.<\/p>\n
Afghan Foziye Muhammedi, 17, said she too was sheltering in a tent along with her sisters and mother in the canvas village set up for victims in Van city.<\/p>\n
“No father, no brother… only three sisters and mother,” she said, struggling to articulate her misery.<\/p>\n
“Turkey is a beautiful country,” she said. “It is more beautiful than Afghanistan. But now after the quake, it is so hard to live here.”<\/p>\n
Avogul Kurbaneli, an Afghan woman, who appeared to be in her sixties, pointed to a makeshift shelter she had constructed from nylon.<\/p>\n
“We are four people… I have nothing to eat. I don’t have a tent,” she said.<\/p>\n
“We want a tent,” said added. “We want bread.”<\/p>\n
Van province, bordering Iran, is one of 52 locations nationwide where refugees are temporarily accommodated before being resettled in third countries.<\/p>\n
Sunday’s quake killed 570 people and injured 2,500, according to official figures.<\/p>\n
The nightly sub-zero temperatures have ensured even more misery for survivors who have been forced to camp out amid fears that even those buildings still standing could collapse in aftershocks.<\/p>\n
“We have received no reports of deaths or injuries among the refugee population in Van province,” said Metin Corabatir, spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ (UNHCR) Turkey office.<\/p>\n
“But most of their houses were damaged during the quake and they cannot go back out of fear,” he added.<\/p>\n
“I came to Turkey two years ago,” said Metini Emini, 24, speaking in Turkish.<\/p>\n
“I don’t want to go back to Afghanistan where the Taliban looted our house in Kabul,” he added. “The war is still continuing there.”<\/p>\n
Emini said he was working at a tailor’s shop in Van city earning a daily wage of 15 liras (seven euros).<\/p>\n
“Only me and my brother work in our family of seven people. I was paying 180 liras (90 euros) a month for my house which collapsed during the quake. It is very hard to survive now.”<\/p>\n
Emini is now living in a tent he put up in the garden of the collapsed house.<\/p>\n
The UNHCR is working with the Turkish government to relocate refugees who wish to move to another city.<\/p>\n
“We are thinking about relocating volunteer refugees to other satellite cities in Turkey. Those who don’t want to leave are free to stay in Van,” said Corabatir.<\/p>\n
(Follow timesofoman.com on Facebook and on Twitter for updates that you can share with your friends.)<\/p>\n
via Times of Oman.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
AFP Sat Oct 29 2011 12:25:52 GMT+0400 (Arabian Standard Time) Oman Time Afghan: Afghan refugee Nergis Shovar washes dishes in muddy water in front of the tent that’s been home since a devastating 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck eastern Turkey last week. “My house collapsed during the quake… I fled the house. Now I am living […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":46175,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[257],"tags":[6025],"class_list":["post-46170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-afghanistan","tag-afghan-refugees"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46170\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}