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Refugees in Turkey: Comprehensive Vulnerability Monitoring Exercise (Round 5) (June 2020)

Countries
Türkiye
+ 6 more
Sources
WFP
Publication date

Executive Summary

Turkey currently hosts the largest refugee population in the world, approximately 4 million1, the majority of whom are Syrians displaced by the decade long conflict. The Comprehensive Vulnerability Monitoring Exercise 5 (CVME5) was conducted within the scope of the Emergency Social Safety Net (ESSN), a multi-purpose cash transfer programme that supports vulnerable refugees in Turkey to meet their basic needs.

The main objective of the CVME5 is to assess the socioeconomic vulnerability of the refugee population in Turkey and estimate the refugees’ needs. Data collection was conducted from November 2019 to February 2020 through face-toface surveys with a representative sample of 1,425 households (8,578 individuals), including ESSN beneficiaries, ineligible applicants, pending beneficiaries and households who have not applied to the ESSN.

While data collection was completed just before COVID-19 outbreak in Turkey (first case reported on March 11, 2020) and results therefore do not provide a true representation of the current situation due to the impact of the pandemic, they still give a good indication of which groups are likely to have been more affected.

HIGHLIGHTS

Demographics

The refugee population is generally young with persons under the age of 18 constituting 46% of the population. Nearly one-in-five households are female-headed. Among them, the majority (59%) are single parent households with children under 18, compared to just 1% single parent among male-headed households. Effectively, around 100 000 children live in female-headed, single parent households

Refugee Registration

Even as DGMM registration has increased, some 21% of non-ESSN applicants are still unregistered and this constitutes an important barrier to receipt of ESSN assistance.
There is an increasing number of households that do not apply for assistance because they think (or are told) that they will not qualify.

Arrival profile & Plans to Leave Turkey

Most refugees arrived in Turkey more than 3 years ago. While half of them came from urban settings, the other half used to live in a rural setting in their country of origin. For 82% of households, all members arrived at the same time, but this is less common among recent arrivals. There is a 10% increase (since Q4 2018) in the percentage of households with at least one family member planning to leave Turkey and, more than two-thirds of those planning to leave are currently below the poverty line.

Living conditions

Three-quarters of refugee households live in poor-quality apartments; conditions have deteriorated among ESSN beneficiaries and ineligible households since Q4 2018, possibly due to the 36% increase in rental cost observed in the same period. There is disproportionately higher use of unclean forms of energy for cooking (wood/charcoal) among female-headed households, posing health risks to a population that is susceptible to respiratory tract infections.

Health

More than half of refugee households had at least one sick member, most often due to respiratory tract infections.
In age groups 2-5 and 6-17, males are more susceptible to illness than their female counterparts. The reverse is true for age groups <2 and 18-59 where females are more susceptible to illness. There is good health seeking behavior among refugees who are mostly treated in government-owned health facilities. However, this is particularly constrained among unregistered refugees.

Education

Among adults, females and older refugees are more likely to be illiterate and with no knowledge of the Turkish language, a limiting factor for integration with the host community. Among children, an estimated 400,000 do not regularly attend school. Children in female-headed households are more likely to miss school.

Household Economic Capacity

The minimum cost of essential needs has increased at a higher rate since the 2018 economic slowdown and currently outstrips income for most refugees who depend either on the ESSN or low paid, unskilled labour as their main income source. More than half the households borrowed money to cope with the rising costs, while others engage children under 15 in income-generating activities. Also, some households use negative coping strategies such as withdrawal of children from school to increase income generating ability and sustain their well-being.

Food and Nutrition Security

While most households are food secure with high food consumption and diet diversity, heme-iron rich foods are absent from the diets of one-third of the refugees, predisposing women and children to micronutrient deficiency.

Poverty

There is a widening disparity between male and female-headed households given they have exhibited opposite trends in multi-dimensional poverty since August 2017.
Living conditions remain the main limiting factor for most households

Predictors of vulnerability

While all the variables considered (except nationality) were significantly associated with the incidence of multi-dimensional poverty, whether positively or negatively, analysis clearly shows that multi-dimensional poverty among refugees in Turkey is particularly impacted by the gender of the household head: female-headed households are significantly more likely to be multi-dimensionally poor.

Protection & Security

The majority (96%) of households did not experience any insecurity problem in the 3 months before the survey. The most common issues reported by the remaining 4% were ill treatment/harassment, feeling unsafe and, to a smaller extent, robbery/theft.

Refugee adaptation and the Social Support Network

While about half of refugees feel they have adapted to life in Turkey, the other half either do not feel they have adapted or remain undecided. Being literate and having knowledge of Turkish are some of the factors that appear to positively influence adaptation. The majority of refugees (at least 60%) have a wide social network within the refugee community while only a few (about 30%) have networks with the Turkish community.

Gender

Nearly one-in-five of the households are female-headed.
More than half of these households consist of only one parent and children below 18. Female-headed households tend to be more vulnerable due to limited work opportunities and cultural boundaries regarding women in work life.
Moreover, women at the head of the household are usually less educated than their male counterparts and have less employment opportunities. As a result, female-headed households struggled more than male-headed households to meet their basic needs.