Monday, September 05, 2011

On Somalia Street, Istanbul, African migrants seek a new life

Somali street in Istanbul, Turkey.

ISTANBUL // When the muezzin's call for the dhuhr prayer rang out from the Katip Kasim Mosque in a rundown neighbourhood of Istanbul this week, dozens of men arrived. But it was no ordinary crowd that gathered midday in the mosque: about half of the men were Africans.

"Istanbul's Mogadishu" is the name Turkish newspapers call the area around the mosque in the Yenikapi district close to the Sea of Marmara on the European side of the Turkish metropolis. The street in front of the 17th-century mosque, Katip Kasim Camii Sokak, has been dubbed "Somalia Street", because the neighbourhood has become home for migrants from across Africa, many of whom do not have Turkish residence permits and face expulsion if arrested by the police....read more>>>>>


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