Refugees from Kobanê staying in the state-run AFAD tent city in Suruç have found devices in their tents that they claim are listening devices. However, officials at the AFAD Directorate say they have had no complaints and that enquiries should be directed to the police.

A new scandal has broken out at the AFAD camp set up in Suruç with the intention of removing refugees from Kobanê from the tent cities set up by the Suruç municipality with the discovery of listening devices in the tents. The refugees at the camp, which was previously used as a concentration camp for Armenians, say the state is monitoring their conversations.

'It is worse than ISIS’  

Nuhan Berkel, a resident in the AFAD camp, said: "We fled ISIS attacks and thought we would be safe here. But now we find out they are listening to us. This is unacceptable. Every day helicopters fly over the camp and now this. We fled from the gangs, but this is worse. Berkel added that aid provided by international organisations was being taken by officials, saying: "They give us 85 TL a month for food expenses, but everything in the camp canteens is three times the price it is outside.”

Conflicting answers

Another women who lives in the tent city, Fadile Kenco, said that when they had asked about the devices they had been told they were ‘fire alarms’. Subsequently, she said they had been told the devices were ‘to prevent theft’.

When we asked AFAD about the devices they claimed they had had no complaints about the devices and told us to direct inquiries to the police.