Refugee

Cengiz, a street seller who plies his trade selling bread rings in the centre of Istanbul, is usually a fervent supporter of Turkey's newly-elected President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. But on one issue, he begs to differ.

"I support Erdoğan. But I must say he made one error and that's to allow the Syrians into our country," he said.

The number of refugees from Iraq's Yazidi religious minority who have fled to Turkey from the advance of jihadists has risen to 16,000 and may rise further, a top provincial official was quoted as saying Aug. 30.

Over 3 million people have fled the civil war in Syria, according to reports of the United Nations refugee agency.

Antonio Guterres, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), called the crisis "the biggest humanitarian emergency of our era" in a Friday statement.

According to the press release, almost half of all Syrians have been forced to abandon their homes.

More than three million Syrians have fled the civil war ravaging their country to become refugees - a million of them in the past year alone, the United Nations said Aug. 29.

By Robert Evans

Nearly 2,000 people fleeing Africa and the Middle East have drowned in the Mediterranean this year, most of them in the past three months as they tried to reach Europe from Libya, the United Nations refugee agency said on Tuesday.

Vasil Varbanov, Deputy Chair of Bulgaria's State Agency for Refugees, has cautioned about a new wave of refugees.

In a Monday interview for the Bulgarian National Television, Varbanov noted that the Agency had received a total of 726 applications for protection in the first 20 days of August, compared to a total of 320 applications in March and 311 in July.

Bulgaria is grappling with an influx of refugees, mostly fleeing the war in Syria, that has caught authorities by surprise, Al Jazeera has said in a feature story.

About 700,000 Iraqis have gathered in the Kurdish north after being driven from their homes by jihadist fighters, the United Nations said Aug. 22 as it stepped up a massive aid operation to the region.

A group of NGOs has called for legislation formally defining the status of temporary residents, expressing concern about the latest attacks targeting Syrian refugees in several Turkish cities.

Municipal police are asking Syrians operating shops in the southeastern province of Gaziantep to remove signs in Arabic, amid an increase in tensions between the local population and refugees in the region.

Officers have requested that shopkeepers only use Turkish in their signs and price lists, Mayor Fatma Şahin said, adding that they had received many complaints about the issue.