Kurds in the Syrian cities of Damascus and Aleppo have been forced to migrate to other countries after they were caught between two fires since the beginning of the conflict environment in Syria. Many among them have moved to Istanbul where they are now struggling for life under quite severe conditions, men not being allowed to work for being foreigners and children being forced to go around begging and robbery in order to earn the money their families need to survive.

Around a hundred Syrian Kurdish families are living in the neighborhoods of Küçükpazar and Fatih in Istanbul where they are staying in damp and dirty rooms of unlicensed hotels and pensions that are not subjected to supervision by authorities.

Every day the men of the families in Küçükpazar gather on the street of the hotel they stay in, spending hours talking about the ongoing war in Syria. The small children of families go to the crowded beachside streets of Istanbul every day, forced to beggary in order to meet the daily needs of their families. The young girls and boys who go begging in Beyoğlu and Taksim, where crime rates are quite high, are reportedly being led towards prostitution and drug traps every passing day.

Most of the Syrian Kurds we have met here avoid saying their names and allowing their photographs to be taken. Each one of them is seen to be still bearing the fear of the Baath regime.

A young man from these families, asking to be mentioned unnamed, told the followings as to the struggle they have been making to survive, "We were living in the neighborhoods of Esrefiye and Şex Meqsud in Aleppo where we were caught between two fires with the beginning of the war, forces of the government on one side and opposition groups on the other side. Bombs were being dropped on our house every day, which made us move first to Urfa and Antep and later to Istanbul, leaving there everything we had. Some people brought us to these two neighborhoods in Istanbul. We are staying at the hotels here, with a family, around ten people, sharing one room and all families using a common bathroom. We pay 20 TL per day and 600 TL per month for each room. The men aren't allowed to work here because we are foreigners that nobody is willing, or allowed, to employ or hire. We have no choice but to make our children work to earn the money we need for shelter and food. All our children go around begging because we will be thrown in the street if we cannot pay for the hotels we are staying at. We are waiting for the ending of the war to go back our homes".

When we ask the young man to take a photo of the rooms they are living in, he tells that the owner of the hotel wouldn't allow us to do it. Then we speak to the owner of the hotel who indeed denies us permission to take a photo of the hotel or the rooms he rents to Syrian Kurds. A shopkeeper near the hotel, witnessing this conversation with the hotel owner, tells the reason as follows, "The owner of the hotel denies you permission to take photos because he doesn't want his rent system to be brought into light and broken down. As a matter of fact, it is not a 'hotel' these people are living in, but a place hosting helpless people without being subjected to any kind of supervision. The owners and administrators of this kind of hotels firstly take not money but the passports of the Syrian people who move to this area. Then they force the children of these families to go begging in order to get the monthly price of the rooms they rent to them. This is the rent system they have established here, exploiting helpless people. Neither police nor the municipality is aware of the inhuman situation here. Maybe they know about it but they do not interfere".

Another man from these families, who is also staying in a hotel around, also asking to be mentioned unnamed, invites us to the room they have been living in for six months. What we see in the room is a great desperateness and miserableness. He cannot tell much more about the circumstances they are facing and suffering. He bends his head and remains silent. His wife continues speaking, “It is true that we are not afraid of being killed by bombs while sleeping every night here but we are suffering an inhuman life here. We are not suffering from bombs but our children have become beggars and it seem they will find themselves in a much worse environment soon. Believe me- she emphasizes- we can manage without eating anything but our small children, who are not aware of anything, are always crying of hunger. Like this one-she shows the baby in her arms- who cried till the morning last night because of being hungry. I had nothing at all to give her. Who would feel good for begging and stealing? They will throw us out of this room if we cannot afford 600 TL for each room every month”.

A Kurdish young boy comes near us as we walk around the neighborhood, and asks, “Isn't there any Kurd in Istanbul to do something about us?”

Then he tells the war in Syria in detail. He sighs as he says that they had expected Kurds in Istanbul to help them, and remarks that nobody, Kurdish institutions neither, has come there and seen how they are doing. He says they do not know Turkish and are not able to make any move for they left their passports to the owner of the hotel in return to room price.