Bargaining between EU and Turkey leaves Syrian refugees trapped in Istanbul

• Video report by ITV News Senior International Correspondent John Irvine

Abu Mohammed and his seven-year-old son earn a pittance peddling on the streets of Istanbul.

Including their own, they have seven mouths to feed.

Abu Mohammed, his wife and their five children fled Aleppo three years ago as their neighbourhood was being blown to smithereens.

Now, here in Istanbul, their's is a relentless daily test of urban survival.

I ask him about the future and he says he never thinks about it.

“My family situation doesn’t allow for planning. We don’t have any money. You can’t make plans without money,” he said.

There are almost three million Syrian refugees in Turkey. In Istanbul alone there are more than in all of Europe.

Istanbul used to be a reliable stepping stone to Europe but not any more.

Since the EU and Turkey struck a bargain to stop the flow of people, the city has become a trap.

Many Syrian Christians are among the refugees. Caught in the middle of an inter-Muslim war they have found their situation in Syria untenable.

In its birthplace, the Levant, the Middle Eastern religion that is Christianity is fading away.

Most Syrians we spoke to are desperately unhappy. The language barrier is just one of many impediments they face.

But with Europe out of bounds and returning home out of the question, they are stuck here for the foreseeable future.