Refugees forced to sleep on streets in Turkey as coronavirus outbreak sees collapse of aid

At an Istanbul bus terminal, the kindness of strangers replaces aid in the shadow of a pandemic, Borzou Daragahi reports from Istanbul

Refugees take shelter in Istanbul’s main bus terminal (Shadi Turk/The Independent)

The young Afghan couple were huddling in the cold; their toddler coughing and wheezing uncontrollably. Amid fears of coronavirus, and public apathy towards refugees, most of the travellers making their way through Istanbul’s vast main bus terminal quickly averted their eyes and hurried past.

But something drew 45-year-old businessman Isa Kapcak to the family of Fahim Ayoubi. He, his wife Negin, their sick two-and-half-year old Mohammad-Sabet and a group of perhaps two dozen or so Afghan and Syrian refugees were exposed to the elements after they had been kicked out of the terminal. Many were penniless and had suffered through harrowing journeys to the Greek border, where they had sought to cross into the European Union at the behest of Turkish authorities.

Kapcak, who leases buses to transport firms and runs a dry cleaning shop in the Istanbul bus terminal, insisted on taking the boy and his parents to a hospital.