Spotlight: Refugees host city pins hope on World Humanitarian Summit

Kilis, a Turkish border city grappling with a population of Syrian refugees larger than its own, has high hopes for the first-ever World Humanitarian Summit slated for May 23-24 in Istanbul.

When Kilis became the capital of the namesake province in 1996, its infrastructure was designed to meet the needs of a population up to 115,000 by 2023.

Things have not turned out as expected, however. The city is now hosting some 130,000 Syrians fleeing from their war-torn country over the past five years.

The municipality used to collect 40 tons of garbage before the influx, now the figure has skyrocketed to 160 tons per year.

The need for purified water has tripled to 30,000 cubic meters daily, while the number of funeral services has risen to 1,600 from 700 per year.

The public green space per capita, meanwhile, has dwindled to only 1.1 square meters.

"Suddenly we have been left with a population of refugees, which has outnumbered our own population of 93,000," Mayor Hasan Kara told Xinhua over the phone.

"Imagine a man who weighs 70 kilos and the next morning he wakes to a day when he weighs 700 kilos more," he spoke of the dire situation facing his city using a metaphor. "Imagine the physiological and psychological trauma to him."

"We do not share the same language with them," the mayor said, adding "Our traditions, our culture and all are different."

Turks and Syrians in the city, however, have been able to cohabit.

"Turkish people have been sharing their homes, their jobs, their foods and even their fresh air with Syrians without hesitation," said Kara.

City officials and Turkish NGOs are also organizing workshops and vocational training courses to help the newcomers to build a new life.

"From cooking to English language, from computer to several handcraft classes, we have different offerings for them," noted Kara. "But now we're not able to support them on our own anymore."

Neither the infrastructure nor the superstructure of the city is capable of handling this sudden increase in population, the mayor said.

Making things worse, rockets have been fired continually from northern Syria on Kilis since mid-January, killing some two dozen people.

"I'm calling on the UN World Humanitarian Summit to hear our voice," said Kara.

The mayor is hoping to raise 100 million euros (123 million U.S. dollars) to be used to improve the infrastructure, including sewer and water purification systems, and to create more public green space.

The city has so far not got any support or donation from the international community, apart from a solid waste compactor machine worth 250,000 euros (307,800 dollars).

According to Kara, as the average cost per month for one Syrian refugee in his city is around 1,000 Turkish liras (339 dollars), the municipality is struggling to help the refugees survive.

Turkey is currently sheltering some three million Syrians and Iraqis, an undertaking that has cost the Turkish government 10 billion dollars.

In a recent statement, Turkish President RecepTayyip Erdogan said that with the spending of Turkish NGOs and municipalities combined, the cost has already exceeded 20 billion dollars.

Now all are turning to the World Humanitarian Summit for concrete steps to address the worst humanitarian crisis since World War II.

The summit will bring together some 6,000 participants, including heads of state and government, private sector representatives and NGOs for the first time, to discuss how to handle the crisis in a better way.

"The participants will exchange views in order to see how we can deliver improved services and determine how we can spend already collected money more efficiently following the summit," said Herve Verhoosel, spokesman for the summit.

"Every country will have a chance to make its own commitments and it doesn't have to be a merely financial matter," he told Xinhua.

Representatives of Turkish NGOs argue that "empowering of local communities" would be a better way to cope with humanitarian crises like the one besetting Kilis.

Sema Gene lKaraosmanoglu, executive director of Turkish NGO "Support to Life," told Xinhua that "localization of humanitarian assistance" would be the strongest and most important message that could be sent from the summit.

She said that in the current humanitarian aid system, a great majority of global funding actors are positioned far from the effected people.

"It is striking to see that less than two percent of the total funding goes to local actors who are in direct contact with the effected populace," she noted.

In her view, for humanitarian aid to be effective, more resources should be channeled to local actors "who provide the most effective aid to people in need."

The suggestion was echoed by Kerem Kinik, president of the Turkish Red Crescent, which has set up 17 tent cities and 8 container cities inside Turkey hosting a total of 264,865 Syrian refugees.

"We're expecting increased level of direct funding to local actors who are facing directly with the humanitarian crisis," Kinik told the press on Tuesday. "So the structure must empower the small- and medium-size NGOs."

Verhoosel indicated that the demands of NGOs could be at the heart of the summit, saying "The participants will decide what is working and what is not and also what needs to be improved." Endit