Attachments
Key Highlights
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Almost 3 million people have been displaced because of the earthquake. As of February 25th, AFAD reported 1.6 million people sheltering in the affected area, 323’000 sheltering outside, and 900’000 sheltering elsewhere under their own means.
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Building damage data indicates that there may be even higher numbers of displaced people. More than 2.2 million units have sustained some damage, and given that the average occupancy is of 3 people per household, this means that over 7-8 million people lived in homes that were at least partially damaged by the earthquake.
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Earthquake displacement trends are following the existing southeast-northwest migration trend already existing within Turkiye. This outflux of people has led to rising rental rates, high hotel occupancy, and controversy over university dorms as suitable shelter options for households with children
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Local displacement models reflect massive population loss within heavily damaged cities, and population increases in areas around cities. This trend reflects the life-loss and destruction in these areas, and the establishment of various shelter systems in the suburbs around impacted towns and cities.
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WASH issues are extremely pressing, with current data showing an extremely high people per toilet and shower ratios within affected area campsites. Worrying signs also exist of increasing health issues within tent-shelter camps
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There is diversity in the types of shelter offered for relief. These include tents, containers, voluntary people's houses (through a gov-sponsored home lending program), university dormitories, ministry of youth facilities, hotels, guest houses, and others.
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The shelter application process is simple. Gendarmerie has set up evacuation centres where people can apply to leave the area to other provinces. They do not need documents to do so. No problems have been reported regarding this procedure so far.
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Even though all statistics are expected to come from AFAD as the coordination agency, either due to the timing differences in reporting, quickly changing situation or due to other complications in data management, there can be mismatches between figures published in the different AFAD reports and international media.
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There is a need to verify official figures with direct field observations, especially when it comes to data about tents, damages, occupations, and/or other secondary data since aggregations shared by AFAD may reflect theoretical totals rather than true on-the-ground counts.
Introduction
Two earthquakes, one of magnitude 7.7 and the other of 7.6, occurred on Monday 6 February in southeastern Türkiye, affecting more than 13.5 million people. Since then, over 7’184 tremors were recorded in the area, including an additional earthquake in Hatay of 6.4 magnitude two weeks later. The earthquakes occurred at the peak of the winter season and is considered the largest earthquake in centuries in the region. Tremors were felt as far away as Israel and Egypt.
More than 2.7 million people were living in the 50 kilometers radius of the epicenter, and up to 70’000 people were exposed to violent shaking, according to USGS. As of February 21st, 42’310 people have lost their lives in Turkiye, although casualties are expected to climb further. Up to 2 million people have been displaced regionally, and a massive national and international aid response has been undertaken.
This document represents an overview of available secondary data regarding displacement and shelter within the crisis context as of February 27th, 2023. It is important to note that the research findings presented here as well as the insights that can be derived from them do not always necessarily reflect IFRC’s position, or the position of any of the agencies mentioned within. They are chosen in this study purely due to their methodological rigor and their potential to inform the humanitarian sector, which works to support the response to the earthquake inside Turkiye.