After the earth shook in the border area between Turkey and Syria, life there came to a standstill. Entire neighborhoods were completely destroyed, and millions of people lost their livelihoods.

In Turkey, the most affected areas – in terms of death toll and structural damage – are Hatay, Adiyaman, Gaziantep and Kahramanmaraş. People have had to move into temporary shelters and tent settlements where they lack clean drinking water, food and access to medical care and sanitation. In addition, many of those affected are traumatized and need psychosocial support. In Turkey alone, 13 million people are affected – that is one in six of the population. By the end of February, over 150,000 people in Turkey were already internally displaced. Turkey is already home to 3.9 million refugees and has been the largest refugee-hosting country in the world for the past twelve years.

Among the displaced in the affected provinces, disadvantaged groups have the least access to existing state-led support mechanisms and humanitarian aid. These include members of the Roma community as well as Syrian refugees who have found refuge in Turkish cities since the Syrian civil war in 2011. They were already disadvantaged in education, health, housing, and the labor market before the earthquake disaster and face rigid barriers to fully actualize their lives in Turkey. The crisis has dramatically worsened their situation. Mass assistance is scarce and limited for the disadvantaged groups living on the margins of society and cities. Therefore, their recovery will be more difficult.