Spot News, 3rd prize
Broken Border
Bulent Kilic
14 June, 2015
People cross into Turkey through a broken fence, near the official border crossing at Akçakale. Akçakale and the Syrian town of Tel Abyad are directly adjacent to each other, with the border running through the middle.
When conflict erupted in Syria in 2011, Turkey initially operated an open-door policy to people fleeing the violence. In June 2015, new fighting in northern Syria, between members of the so-called Islamic State (IS) and a coalition of Kurdish and opposition militia, led to a sharp increase in border crossings, as civilians fled both airstrikes and ground battles. The UNHCR said that in the first half of June, fighting in the region led to more than 23,000 refugees fleeing into Turkey, with some 70 percent of those being women and children. Turkey began to take measures to limit the numbers of refugees coming into the country, so people attempted other ways of entering.
Bulent Kilic
In 2002 he became a photographer, joining AFP as a stringer two years later. He is currently the photo manager for Turkey and has carried out several foreign assignments includin...
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