Data for Refugees: The D4R Challenge on Mobility of Syrian Refugees in Turkey

TL;DR

The D4R Challenge provides a comprehensive anonymized mobile data set to facilitate research on Syrian refugees in Turkey, aiming to address urgent social issues through data-driven insights.

Contribution

This paper introduces a large-scale, anonymized mobile dataset capturing refugee mobility patterns, enabling new research on refugee integration and well-being.

Findings

Data covers one year of mobility patterns

Includes anonymized call and SMS records of one million users

Supports research on health, education, and safety issues

Abstract

The Data for Refugees (D4R) Challenge is a non-profit challenge initiated to improve the conditions of the Syrian refugees in Turkey by providing a special database to scientific community for enabling research on urgent problems concerning refugees, including health, education, unemployment, safety, and social integration. The collected database is based on anonymised mobile Call Detail Record (CDR) of phone calls and SMS messages from one million Turk Telekom customers. It indicates broad activity and mobility patterns of refugees and citizens in Turkey for one year. The data collection period is from 1 January 2017 to 31 December 2017. The project is initiated by Turk Telekom, in partnership with the Turkish Academic and Research Council (TUBITAK) and Bogazici University, and in collaboration with several academic and non-governmental organizations, including UNHCR Turkey, UNICEF, and International Organization for Migration.