The trial began today of two Turkish health professionals accused of failing to notify police about the presence of 115 pregnant teenage patients at an Istanbul hospital they helped run. The case has sparked national fury because many of the girls were allegedly under 15, the minimum age of consent in Turkey, reported the independent online news publication BiaNet.

The patients allegedly included at least 30 Syrians. A hospital employee who blew the whistle claimed that all of the girls had been admitted to the Kanuni Sultan Suleyman hospital between January and May 2017, leaving the public wondering how many more like them may have walked through its doors.

In January, the opposition Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) demanded that parliament investigate the affair. HDP lawmaker Meral Danis Bestas, who introduced the motion, told Al-Monitor that it had come to naught. "Our party has been at the forefront of efforts to mobilize the parliament in such matters, but the government has blocked our every move," she said.

Syrian refugees are particularly vulnerable, and there has been a steady flow of allegations of Syrian girls being sold off as second wives or sexually abused in refugee camps and elsewhere. In May, a 2-year-old Syrian girl was hospitalized in the southern province of Antalya after she was sexually assaulted. Three suspects were detained in connection with the case.