Thousands of Syrian refugees in Turkey are returning to rebel-held areas of their country after the February 6 earthquake that caused widespread devastation on both sides of the border.
Turkish authorities said refugees who entered north-west Syria would have the right to return for up to six months, prompting many Syrians to cross the border to check on relatives.
Officials gave no figures for the number of people entering at the Bab Hamam crossing into Idlib, but said 4,600 Syrians had passed through the Bab al Hawa crossing since Turkey announced the offer on Wednesday.
"I haven't seen my family for four years, as I live alone in Turkey," Youssef Qramo said after crossing into Syria's north-west Idlib region.
"The situation in Turkey is miserable in the areas where the earthquake hit," he told Reuters
Mr Qramo, who had been living in the city of Gaziantep, said people were staying in tents in the cold and rain. As well as the harsh winter weather, Syrians had faced hostility, he said.
Even before the earthquake, the 3.6 million Syrian refugees in Turkey had encountered growing resentment from Turks struggling with a rising cost of living and sometimes blaming the influx from Syria for their economic woes.
In Gaziantep, Mr Qramo said police had moved Syrians out of a mosque where they were sheltering to make way for Turkish families. Several Turks in other quake-hit towns and cities have accused Syrians of robbing damaged shops and homes.
"The situation is very tough for Syrians," he said.
Mansour Hamoud, who was living in the Turkish port city of Iskenderun, said he had been sleeping in a park after his home was destroyed.
"I decided to come back and live in my country. Dead or alive, I prefer to be with my family," he said.
Around four million people live in north-west Syria under the control of armed rebels opposed to President Bashar Al Assad's government. The United Nations say most of them were dependent on aid even before the latest disaster.
The 7.8 magnitude earthquake levelled thousands of building in Turkey and northern Syria, leaving millions homeless in freezing winter temperatures. The death toll had passed 38,000 in Turkey and 5,800 in Syria by Friday, 11 days after the earthquake. The disaster sparked a worldwide humanitarian response, although aid has been slower to reach Syria.
Anas Haj Qadro, who was in the badly affected Turkish city of Antakya when the earthquake struck, said he had decided to live with his family in Idlib until some normality returned.
With reporting from Reuters
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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