2023-04-27 01:32:00
- People with disabilities live in camps in inadequate conditions
The lack of sanitation facilities and specialized support endangers health
Turkish authorities and humanitarian actors must act urgently to ensure an inclusive response
In a new report released today, Amnesty International says the humanitarian response to the devastating earthquakes that struck Turkey is ignoring people with disabilities living in camps for displaced people.
The report, ‘We all need dignity’: The exclusion of persons with disabilities in Türkiye’s earthquakes response, documents the current lives of persons with disabilities in inadequate shelter, and how the response to the disaster by authorities and humanitarian actors undermines their dignity and their right to health.
During the powerful earthquakes that struck Turkey in February 2023, more than 48,000 people lost their lives and more than 100,000 were injured, many of whom suffered amputations or other life-long injuries. An estimated 3.3 million people have been displaced, with 2.3 million of them taking refuge in tent camps and container settlements. According to a joint assessment by the Turkish government and the UN, up to 70% of the injured people who have survived the earthquake are expected to have some kind of disability.
“The immense human suffering caused by earthquakes is exacerbated in the case of people with disabilities, who are neglected by the humanitarian response.”, said Matthew Wells, Deputy Director of Research at Amnesty International’s Crisis Response Programme.
“The undifferentiated response when it comes to providing emergency shelter does not take into account the specific needs of people with disabilities to live with dignity, and prevents many from accessing humanitarian aid on equal terms.”
“The Turkish government and humanitarian actors, including international donors, must take urgent steps to ensure a humanitarian response that is inclusive of all survivors, including those with disabilities. Their needs must be addressed by providing them with the specialized support they need.”
Amnesty International is aware of the scale and severity of the humanitarian crisis caused by the earthquakes. However, regardless of the scale of the emergency, the rights of persons with disabilities must be fully respected.
The report is mainly based on visits to Adiyaman, Gaziantep, Hatay and Kahramanmaras provinces in southern Turkey. Between March and April 2023, Amnesty International research staff conducted 131 interviews with earthquake survivors, documenting the experience of 34 people with disabilities (10 women, 15 men and 9 boys and girls). Among the people interviewed were 19 with different types of disabilities, 26 family members of people with disabilities, and 13 humanitarian workers from the response teams.
Inadequate travel conditions
In the 21 places Amnesty International visited, people without mobility or with reduced mobility could not access common sanitation facilities, a situation that was repeated widely, as confirmed by humanitarian aid staff. Lacking access to latrines, many now depend on caregivers and products such as adult diapers that they receive through humanitarian aid.
A 48-year-old Syrian refugee who had her left leg and part of her right foot amputated due to diabetes explained: “I don’t fix myself to use the communal toilets. My relatives have to help me move from the wheelchair to the toilet, and every time I use it they have to empty and clean it… Human beings need a bit of privacy and dignity, but in these circumstances it is very difficult to have it.”
Nurcan, a 32-year-old woman with a physical disability who depends on her family for a ride to the camp facilities, told us: “I can’t use the bathroom. I can’t shower… I don’t eat well. I’m afraid that if I eat here like I used to eat before, they’ll have to take me to the bathroom”.
A 13-year-old girl who lost her right leg in the earthquake that also killed her mother told Amnesty International about her experience. She has been forced to wear nappies and relies on her 18-year-old sister to change and clean her. Her sister said: “She cannot use the toilet because it is too unstable, and a fall would be very dangerous for the amputation wound… Sometimes I think I am in a nightmare, but then I realize that it is reality.”
This emergency response does not comply with human rights obligations or the humanitarian principles of inclusion and non-discrimination. Almost all of the people with disabilities Amnesty International interviewed – including the elderly with reduced mobility – were dependents of relatives, unable to collect food or other items, such as personal hygiene kits, at delivery points.
Urgent need for specialized health services
Amnesty International has also documented the shortage of appropriate support devices, such as wheelchairs, and the disruption of specialized care, such as rehabilitation services.
Bahir Ghazi, a 58-year-old man who lives in a camp for displaced persons in central Antakya, said his two physically disabled daughters, aged 22 and 32, attended a rehabilitation center twice a week, but the building had collapsed during the earthquake. So far they have not been offered an alternative.
The earthquakes caused a massive stoppage in the operation of health services, including those that care for people with disabilities, due to the collapse or severe damage to the facilities, and the death, injury and displacement of staff.
Amnesty International also concluded that there was an urgent need to scale up mental health and psychosocial support services to address existing and future needs.
Fadime Cetin, 51, is sick with cancer and takes care of her husband with Alzheimer’s and their two children with disabilities. She told Amnesty International that her family was rescued from under rubble five days after her three-story building collapsed in the town of Kahramanmaras, killing several family members.
Fadime said the safety of her 17-year-old son, who has mental illness, is a constant concern. She recounted that he “sometimes he grabs women’s hijabs” and that “when he does those things, people hit him and insult him.” Also, she sometimes wanders down the street, near the hangout they’re at, and sits in the middle of the traffic. That means that during the day she has to tie him by one foot to a wooden pallet outside the store to restrict his movement. She added: “Before we didn’t tie him up inside the house. At home he was free ”.
Melek, 35, lives with her three children and in-laws in a tented camp in Narli, on the outskirts of the town of Kahramanmaras. He related that his five-year-old daughter showed signs of distress since the earthquake, including talking in her sleep. Melek recounted: “Sometimes when I wake her up to go to the bathroom, the first thing she asks me is if there is an earthquake.”
An inclusive humanitarian response is needed
Turkey is a State Party to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and, as such, its government has the obligation to take measures to promote, protect and guarantee the full exercise of all human rights and fundamental freedoms of persons with disabilities. disability.
The Turkish government and humanitarian actors must ensure that people with disabilities and those who care for them receive adequate support, including by making sanitation facilities accessible and improving aid delivery. Such support should also include the systematic collection and analysis of age, gender and disability disaggregated data, which should be made available to humanitarian actors involved in emergency response in order to ensure adequate and effective service based on the needs.
“It is clear that the support provided to people with disabilities after the earthquakes has fundamental deficiencies. The effects of this humanitarian catastrophe will leave scars for generations. It is essential that people with disabilities have equal access to facilities and services,” said Nils Muižnieks, Director of Amnesty International’s Regional Office for Europe.
“International donors must also provide more support to the humanitarian response in Turkey in this unprecedented crisis, and increase technical and financial assistance, including immediately meeting the needs of people with disabilities.”
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