Situation in Hatay Province, Türkiye
On Saturday morning, the death toll following the earthquake passed 24,000 people in Türkiye, and more than 3,500 people have been reported dead in Syria.
In the first days, the authorities and aid were heavily present in the Gaziantep and Kahramanmaraş provinces. Hatay was also one of the worst-hit provinces in the country; however, aid and rescue teams arrived very slowly in the region, fuelling anger among civilians.
The earthquake caused huge infrastructural damage to the main motorways as well as the Hatay airport (HTY), where the main runway was split into two. The Union of Chambers of Turkish Engineers and Architects (UCTEA) had warned several times that the airport was built along the fault line, thus predicting such event. The tremors also caused fires in critical infrastructure, such as the port of Iskenderun, one of two main container ports in Türkiye. Hundreds of shipping containers caught fire on Monday and were fully extinguished on Wednesday. On Tuesday, several gas pipelines located in the Amik Valley were damaged and caused a fire. State-owned BOTAS announced that it had suspended natural gas supplies to the provinces of Gaziantep, Hatay and Kahramanmaras.
Damage to the province's roads, airport and port made access to the region’s biggest cities extremely limited which severely delayed the arrival of aid, particularly to Antakya and Samandağ, even 48 hours after the earthquake (declaration by Peoples' Democratic Party - HDP). Eventually, from Thursday, Hatay residents saw a large influx of aid workers, authorities and civil society groups into the area, in contrast to the previous two days. International rescue teams have also arrived in the area (many different organisations/countries mentioned on Twitter: Romania, China, UK, Spain, UN IOM…).
Friday 10th, 11 am: mapping of urgent rescue needs collected from social media posts, majorly located in Hatay (Afetharita.com)
The delay and disorganisation of the humanitarian response are causing anger among residents. Three inmates of Hatay Antakya prison were killed by prison guards, and at least 12 were injured, following a mutiny involving 250 prisoners, according to official sources. Images and videos of the prison riot were leaked on Twitter, where some saying that the inmates were demanding to be allowed to leave the prison to be reunited with their earthquake-affected families.
While humanitarian efforts are still concentrated on saving lives, preventing waterborne diseases, and providing shelter to the tens of thousands left without homes, the treatment of Syrian refugees living in the southern parts of Turkey, are all causes for concern. Ultranationalists are describing the presence of Syrian as a “national security problem”, with the leader of the far-right anti-refugee party claiming Syrians are responsible for the lootings occurring in the region. The images of looting shared on social media do not provide any evidence that the people stealing the goods and aid are Syrians.