Syrians protest at border as cancer patients denied treatment in Turkey

Dozens of Syrians gathered at the Bab al-Hawa border crossing between Syria and Turkey over the weekend for an open-ended sit-in protest against Turkey’s recent refusal to allow cancer patients to cross for treatment.

On Friday and Saturday, at least three people including 11-year-old Sulaiman Issa died of cancer-related conditions in rebel-held parts of Idlib and Aleppo province in northwestern Syria.

Sulaiman died at the military hospital in Afrin, which is held by pro-Turkish Syrian rebel forces after he was denied permission to enter Turkey.

There are an estimated 3,300 people suffering from cancer in northwestern Syria. Turkish authorities have closed off access to Syrian cancer patients since the Turkey-Syria earthquake, which damaged a number of hospitals in southern Turkey.

The refusal of permission for cancer patients to enter coincides with a rise in deportations of Syrian refugees from Turkey amid increasing xenophobia in the country.

Around 65% of the cancer patients in northwestern Syria are women and children. There has been a rapid and alarming rise in cancer cases. Around 608 new cases, 373 of them in children, have been recorded in the past five months – equivalent to around three new cases a day.

Syrian activists have called for an international investigation into the rising cases, saying that the World Health Organisation must examine the situation.

They say that several factors are behind the alarming rise in cancer in northwestern Syria, including the presence of ordnance left behind by previous and continuing bombing of the area by the Assad regime and Russia.

More than 3,000 cancer patients in northern Syria are left without the slightest care. In northern Syria, there are no hospitals or healthcare facilities after Assad's gangs and Russia destroyed everything in the region, Most of the cancer patients are children; they deserve to… pic.twitter.com/mvtJnzoZsQ

— Nedal Al-Amari (@nedalalamari) July 20, 2023

The Idlib Health Directorate told the Arabic news website Arabi 21 that 867 patients needed to be taken for immediate treatment to Turkey but only 259 had managed to receive care in hospitals there.

All these patients were receiving treatment in Turkey before the devastating Turkey-Syria earthquake, which claimed over 50,000 lives, happened last February.

The Health Directorate said that around half of those suffering from cancer (around 1650 cases) were receiving chemotherapy in clinics in northwestern Syria but all of them needed more specialized treatment in Turkey because of a lack of adequate equipment in rebel-held areas of Syria.