As Justin Vela reports for Foreign Policy, the Syrians living in refugee camps along the Turkish-Syrian border exist in a state of limbo -- at the mercy of Turkish authorities, and forever anxious about the growing sectarian war in their home country. Since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began one year ago, more than 11,000 Syrians have found their way to Turkey, while refugees have also streamed into Lebanon and Jordan -- and more than 7,500 people have lost their lives. But rather than warm welcomes, many of the refugees have found their hosts unprepared and wary of becoming embroiled in the chaos across the border.

Above, Syrian refugee children stand behind a fence on June 18, 2011, at the Turkish Red Crescent's Boynuyogun camp in Turkey's southeastern province of Hatay, near the Syrian border. 

MUSTAFA OZER/AFP/Getty Images

Syrian refugee boys chanted slogans during a protest from behind a fence at the Turkish Red Crescent camp, 30 kilometers from the Syrian border, on June 17, 2011.

MUSTAFA OZER/AFP/Getty Images

Refugees' journey across northern Syria is often unforgiving. Here, Syrian refugees enter the border zone between Syria and Turkey, near the Turkish village of Guvecci on June 23, 2011.

ADEM ALTAN/AFP/Getty Images

Syrian refugee children look through the fence at a camp in the Turkish border town of Yayladagi in Hatay province on June 26, 2011. Despite the fact that nearly 12,000 refugees were taking shelter in Turkey at the time, only a few hundred complied with Assad's call to turn back home that summer.

ADEM ALTAN/AFP/Getty Images

Syrian refugees hold their passports as they wait their turn to receive humanitarian aid at the entrance of an NGO in the border area of Wadi Khaled, in north Lebanon, on Feb. 26, 2012.

JOSEPH EID/AFP/Getty Images

Syrian refugee children play basketball in a refugee camp in the Turkish town of Yayladagi on June 25, 2011. On June 23, Syrian troops and tanks approached the Turkish border, sending hundreds of people fleeing into Turkey.

ADEM ALTAN/AFP/Getty Images

Syrian refugee children make peace symbols from behind the fence of a camp near the Turkish border town of Yayladagi.

ADEM ALTAN/AFP/Getty Images

Syrian refugees rest at the Turkish Red Crescent's camp in Hatay Province, about a mile from the Syrian border, on June 19, 2011.

MUSTAFA OZER/AFP/Getty Images

Syrian refugee children fleeing the violence in their country gather with their families on Feb. 20, 2012, in a heated room in the city of Mafraq, near the Jordanian-Syrian border. Current figures are unavailable on the total number of Syrian refugees in Jordan, but U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon said in Amman last month that the kingdom was hosting 2,500 Syrians.

KHALIL MAZRAAWI/AFP/Getty Images

A Syrian refugee family sits in a heated room at a partially set-up camp in Mafraq on Feb. 20, 2012, near Jordan's northern border with Syria. 

KHALIL MAZRAAWI/AFP/Getty Images

A Syrian refugee who fled from Homs with her family takes shelter inside a house in the north Lebanon region of Wadi Khaled on Feb. 10. The Lebanese army recently reinforced its presence in Wadi Khaled at the request of the Assad regime, which wants Lebanon to crack down on arms smugglers.

JOSEPH EID/AFP/Getty Images

Syrian refugees use laptops and cellphones to communicate at a camp near the Turkish border town of Yayladagi on Dec. 6, 2011. On Dec. 1, Damascus suspended the 2004 trade pact with Turkey, once one of Syria's closest economic partners, as the Arab League announced a series of sanctions on the Assad regime.

BULENT KILIC/AFP/Getty Images

Syrian refugees block a highway on Dec. 5 during a demonstration near the Turkish border town of Reyhanli after Turkish authorities expelled two Syrian refugees.

BULENT KILIC/AFP/Getty Images