Derya Ren

 

ANTEP - Speaking about the increasing child mortality, Ayşegül Ateş Tarla, Chairperson of the Antep-Kilis Medical Chamber, said that adequate measures were not taken to keep children alive. Ayşegül said: "We are burying those children without any research on their deaths. Refugee children are not even registered."

 

According to the results of the Address Based Population Registration System (ADNKS) of the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUİK), which announced the Child Data with Statistics for 2020 report; As of the end of 2020, the population of Turkey was 83,614,362 people, of which 22,750,657 were children. No work is being carried out to protect children who have been subjected to violations of rights and abused in Turkey. Hundreds of child deaths in the country are that are not registered and the cause of death is not disclosed.

 

With the pandemic, health is one of the problems that continue to increase every day in Turkey and the region. Women and children are the most deprived in the field of health, as in every field. The existing inadequacies in the field of health attribute the deaths of many children to negligence. This situation is even worse for refugee children. Refugee children, who cannot have regular health check-ups, have a very low rate of going to the hospital when they get sick. On the other hand, it is known that the deaths of refugee children who lost their lives are not officially registered.

Ayşegül Ateş Tarla, Chairperson of the Board of the Antep-Kilis Medical Chamber, made evaluations on the increasing child deaths in Antep and their causes.

 

'There is no single cause of child deaths'

 

Stating that there is no research on child deaths, Ayşegül noted that the ministry is constantly trying to hide child deaths. Stating that in addition to social migration and poverty problems in child deaths, they have problems in reaching health authorities, Ayşegül said: "Child deaths do not occur solely from a problem. There are many factors that cause this. We need to make a lot of effort, especially the authorities, on these issues. Are consanguineous marriages and health follow-ups done by the authorities after the baby is born? Since these problems are not disclosed, we cannot produce solutions either. When the researches are done, the medical chamber is not included. The solutions produced should not be short-term. They are important issues that need to be addressed as a team."

 

'Refugee child deaths are not investigated'

 

Stating that the birth rates of refugees are high, but they cannot follow it, Ayşegül stated that only information about the birth of children is entered into the system. Ayşegül continued: "Refugee children die, but we do not know what happened to them. We bury them without any research on their deaths. Refugee child deaths are never entered in the statistics. Investigation commissions on child deaths do not investigate their causes. When they are a citizen of Turkey, we have to them report to the directorates. It is then investigated in the commission. But unfortunately, refugee babies are not included in those commissions. This is about the value we give to human life. There are migrant health centers, but these are not enough. Causes of child deaths are not investigated there either."

 

'The language problem should be solved'

 

Emphasizing that the results of child death studies in Turkey have not been disclosed, Ayşegül attributed this to the high child mortality rate of refugees. Emphasizing the necessity of recording babies immediately after their birth, Ayşegül said: "There are points to be followed after the birth of the baby, this is not only valid for babies, but also the health conditions of their mothers should be checked. However, they try to take this only through immigrant health centers, this is not enough. On the other hand, another problem faced by refugees is the language problem. Refugee women and children should be registered in the system and the language problem should be solved. Non-governmental organizations should also be able to support by doing research."

 

'It should be able to create models of solidarity'

 

"I think that non-governmental organizations should not provide a new health service, but strengthen the existing state system," she said and noted that non-governmental organizations should develop models of solidarity. Ayşegül stated: "The health system is a serious service. A standardization and order of these are necessary. When it comes to the issue of refugees, discrimination, stigmatization, not being able to benefit from the right to health, cultural problems, gender, violence, so civil society can step in and put forward models of solidarity and building a life together."