Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the human security aspect of the Syrian refugee crisis and to analyse the vulnerability and victimization of Syrian refugees in Turkey. Among the several categories within the human security model (i.e. economic, food, health, environmental, personal, community, and political) as conceptualized by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the study analysed the personal (i.e. individual) security of Syrian refugees in Turkey. A qualitative research design was employed with an applied ethnographic approach which included semi‐structured interviews, observations, document analysis, and field notes. Five main themes were identified regarding the personal security of Syrians: violence, homelessness, prostitution and early marriage, child labour, and deadly journeys. The results of the study indicate that Syrian refugees are exposed to several human insecurity parameters at the individual level, which are largely neglected by the Turkish state. Consequently, Turkey’s failure to promote the human security of the Syrian refugees contributes to their forced migration to Western countries, where ‘freedom from fear’, ‘freedom from want’, and ‘freedom from indignity’ are relatively assured.