Turkey’s Syrian refugee problem continues to fester and grow with no apparent resolution in sight, while threatening to spiral out of control and leading to social tensions across the country. It is not just in towns and cities near the Syrian border — with a high concentration of refugees — where confrontations with locals are on the increase.

The problem is also spreading to cities far from the Syrian border, which have a better capacity to absorb outsiders due to their large populations. Istanbul, with a population of 14 million, is a case in point.

The governor of Turkey’s largest city and financial capital is talking about drastic measures that include plans to expel Syrians dwelling and begging on the streets of the city to camps near the Syrian border. 

This in turn has led to unease in parts of the country being mentioned in this connection. These developments also continue to pose an embarrassment for Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government, which insists that Turkey will maintain its open-door policy for Syrians fleeing the Bashar al-Assad regime.