With the escalating acts of racism against Syrian refugees who have fled from the devastating war in Syria to Turkey, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported that a new incident took place in a high school in Turkey’s Istanbul. According to SOHR sources, two sibling female students known by their initials as N. M. and M. M. were beaten brutally by a group of male and female students in a school called “K.Çekmece ve Teknik Anadolu Lisesi Pagev Mesleki” in Istanbul city.

SOHR also reported that the two Syrian students were previously subjected to verbal and physical abuse. “However, the latest assault was the most violent, where a group of female students had lured the two Syrian sisters to the school’s lavatory and beaten them brutally, before some students saved them when they heard the girls’ loud cries. At the end of the school days, several male and female students gathered outside the school and attacked the two Syrian girls again, as soon as they had left the school, in full view of passers-by. One of the attackers took off the “hijab” of one of the two girls, while another student filmed her without her “hijab” (a veil worn by certain Muslim women in the presence of any male outside of their immediate family, which covers the head and chest). The other girl also suffered bruises all over her body after a young man kicked her brutally. SOHR sources have confirmed that the main motive behind this attack is racism, as the attackers used “swear words” cursing the girls for “being Syrians”, while they were beating them.”

The observatory noted that the Syrian refugees in Turkey are struggling with escalating acts of racism in light of inciting ethnic hatred by media outlets which blame Syrian refugees for the deteriorating economic situation in Turkey, while there are no laws protecting the Syrian refugees living in Turkey.

“In addition, the Turkish government has repeatedly talked about the assistance it provided in the past years to some Syrians in Turkey, which has ignited a state of anger among the Turkish people against the Syrians living in Turkey. However, the Turkish government has never mentioned that this assistance has been provided by the European Union, which offers large sums of financial assistance to the Turkish government for helping Syrian refugees in Turkey,” the observatory said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights called for exerting pressure on the Turkish government to create and ratify laws, based on international standards, protecting Syrian refugees from racist acts.