Pandemic Plunges Turkey Refugees into Debt Crisis

LONDON - The coronavirus pandemic has forced millions of Syrian refugees living in Turkey deeper into poverty, with many having to take on large debts to survive, according to research by the Turkish Red Crescent and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. 

Turkey is host to almost 4 million refugees, the vast majority of them Syrians escaping the decadelong conflict back home. Most are not legally permitted to work but find informal jobs in sectors such as construction, agriculture or hospitality.   When the coronavirus pandemic hit, Turkey's lockdown measures closed off many of those jobs overnight, Jonathan Brass, Turkey operations manager for the International Federation of Red Cross, said in an interview with VOA.  "As a result, [it] limited people's ability to earn and then pay for the basic needs, whether it's water, health care, electricity. And as a result, the risk of falling into more difficult measures — whether it's going into debt, which is one of our main findings — was the outcome of that," Brass said.