The Family and Social Services Ministry has announced that 35 children who have been affected by major earthquakes that hit southern Turkey in early February have not yet been identified, the Stockholm Center for Freedom reported.
According to the ministry 1,766 children have been returned to their families since February and 81 children have been placed in the ministry’s childcare facilities.
Six children died while undergoing medical treatment in hospitals following the earthquakes.
A 7.8-magnitude earthquake that struck near the Turkish city of Gaziantep – home to around 2 million people and on the border with Syria – as people were sleeping on February 6 was followed by dozens of aftershocks, including a 7.5-magnitude temblor that jolted the region in the middle of search and rescue efforts the same day.
Enkaz altından çıkarılmış refakatçisi olmayan 1915 çocuk kayıt altına alınmıştır.
1766 çocuk ailesine teslim edilmiş, 81 çocuk kuruluş bakımına alınmıştır.
62 çocuğun tedavi süreci takip edilmektedir.
Kuruluşlarımızda olup kimliği tespit edilmeyen 35 çocuk bulunmaktadır. pic.twitter.com/EPdwMZzPVq
— T.C. Aile ve Sosyal Hizmetler Bakanlığı (@tcailesosyal) March 29, 2023
More than 850,000 children were displaced in Turkey and northern Syria after devastating earthquakes struck Turkey in on February 6, according to UNICEF.
Some 2.5 million children need urgent humanitarian assistance in southern Turkey, while more than 3.7 million children in Syria have been affected by the earthquakes, UNICEF said, adding that the impact of the earthquakes on the region’s children and families has been catastrophic, leaving hundreds of thousands in desperate conditions.