ISTANBUL, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- The Turkish Red Crescent Society is speeding up preparations both inside Turkey and in northern Syria to cope with a possible flow of refugees that could be triggered by a military offensive against the rebel-held Syrian province of Idlib, the organization said on Wednesday.
"First of all, we are making assessments with our Health Ministry to increase our current healthcare services in the region and meet urgent sanitary needs of possible displaced people," Kerem Kinik, the agency's president, told Xinhua.
Kinik said his organization would soon deliver all the needed medical equipment and supplies to the three major hospitals in the region and increase the number of mobile health units in the field.
"We are also making efforts to create new camping areas and increase our humanitarian aid on both sides of the border," he added.
Kinik stated that the Turkish aid agency is currently rendering support to around 40 camps in the region and managing 11 others with a total capacity of 30,000 tents. He said his organization had started to deliver additional tents for possible newcomers.
There are around 3.5 million people around Idlib region, with many migrating from other parts of Syria, including Hama, Homs, Aleppo and Daraa, said the aid agency chief.
Some 7,000 are staying in 400 makeshift camps in the area with conditions far from being satisfactory, he said.
Kinik expects 1.5 million people to be at risk from being displaced following a military assault on Idlib by the Syrian military.
Underlying that a new wave of migration into Turkey would be extremely difficult to handle, Kinik stated that his organization is continuously providing information to international institutions, including the United Nations, about the humanitarian situation in the region.
Turkey, now hosting some 3.5 million Syrian refugees on its soil, is doing its best to fend off an impending attack on Idlib, as Russian planes on Tuesday reportedly bombed some targets in Idlib.
Ankara has established 12 observation posts in Idlib, one of the four areas under rebel control which were designated as de-escalation zones last year.
