Earthquake migration strains big cities

ISTANBUL — The devastating earthquakes that hit southern Turkiye last month have caused major internal displacement, putting a significant strain on resources in major cities.

Twin earthquakes on Feb 6 killed at least 44,374 people. They also left 164,321 buildings either "collapsed, on the verge of collapse, or with severe structural damage", amounting to about 520,000 apartments, the Ministry of Environment and Urban Planning said.

Many survivors in the 10 provinces hit hardest have since left and moved to neighboring cities or large urban centers. The Disaster and Emergency Management Authority has relocated 528,146 people in the past three weeks, but countless more have relocated by their own means.

Local media Birgun reported that 2.5 million cell phones active in the affected provinces the day before the quakes were detected in other cities a few days later. Factoring in the number of phone-less children who would have also left with their families, Birgun estimated that about 5 million people were displaced.

One significant influx occurred in Mersin, a city in the south with a population of nearly 2 million. It has received about 400,000 survivors, adding to the 237,466 Syrian refugees already living there.

'Social disaster'

Last week, organizations belonging to the Mersin Commodities Exchange released a statement calling on Ankara to provide aid. "The unplanned but unavoidable relocation to Mersin in the wake of the disaster has strained the city's resources, particularly with regard to infrastructure, shelter, and transportation, turning the migration wave into a social disaster," they said.

The statement requested that the central government factor in the influx of new arrivals when distributing emergency relief and speed up projects to strengthen the city's industrial, economic, and transportation capacity.

Another 140,000 survivors flocked to the coastal province of Antalya, according to figures given by its governor, Ersin Yazici. With nearly 75,000 people staying in hotels, motels, and other guest facilities, the popular destination is overcapacity.

One major concern is education. Yazici said that they had identified 12,000 school-aged children among the survivors and are figuring out how to incorporate them into the academic semester.

While there are no specific numbers on migration to Turkiye's three largest cities — Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir — all have taken in large numbers of survivors. According to experts, Ankara, the capital, which is in the center of the country, has taken in most of any Turkish city.

In addition to increased demand from newcomers, many people already residing in major urban centers have begun moving out of quake-prone districts to newer, safer buildings, which has seen rents skyrocket.

Xinhua