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The UN Refugee Agency ( UNHCR) is stepping up assistance to the Turkish government to aid an estimated 130,000 Syrians who have crossed into Turkey since Friday, a UN spokesman said here Monday.
"The Turkish authorities and UNHCR are preparing for the possibility of hundreds of thousands more refugees arriving in the coming days, as the battle for the northern Syrian city of Kobani and surrounding areas forces more people to flee," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said at a daily news briefing here.
"The government of Turkey is accelerating the construction of two camps, with the support of UNHCR, for those who are not being hosted by the local communities and relatives," he said.
"UNHCR is also preparing an air, sea and land emergency relief response to offer a supply of thermal blankets, sleeping mats and kitchen sets, as well as help to rapidly set up and run registration centers," he added.
Throughout the Syria conflict, the city of Kobani was relatively safe and untouched, and as many as 200,000 internally displaced people from other parts of the country had found refuge there.
But with recent siege of the city by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), large numbers of the population, mainly from Syria's Kurdish minority, were forced to abandon their homes and seek safety in Turkey. Among the refugees are large numbers of women, children and older people, the UNHCR reported.
At the start of the influx, the UNHCR responded with immediate supplies of relief items, including 20,000 blankets, 10,000 mats, 5,000 jerry cans, 2,000 plastic sheets. The agency also donated mobile registration and coordination centers, and staff are positioned at the six border crossing points monitoring arrivals and identifying vulnerable people.
