Syrian refugees sheltering in Turkish camps say they are grateful to Turkey for offering them refuge from bloody unrest, but many also miss their homes and some are starting to return.

The number of Syrians sheltering at tent cities in Turkey’s border province of Hatay decreased to 11,122 after 375 people went home of their own accord on, Turkish officials said.

A glance at life within the fenced camp at Yayladagi, as seen on AFP footage filmed with the help of refugees, suggests the 1,600 people inside are offered decent living conditions: Hot meals, running water, electricity, a playground for children and a prayer compound.

Yet some complained of limited access to drinking water and other basic necessities.

“It’s not so good here... It’s not like home,” one man lamented. “But still we are grateful to the Turkish government.”

Others are full of praise for their hosts. Nursing a gunshot wound in his lower leg, a refugee said he named his first child after Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

“They take good care of us,” he said, explaining that his son was born in a Turkish hospital, after the family fled Syria in early June.

“I do not know how I can thank Turkey’s people and government. I wanted to offer something and named my first child Tayyip Erdogan,” he said.

During a recent tour of the camp, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu visited the family and gave them a gold coin, a traditional Turkish present for newborn babies.

The noise of children echoes through the camp in Yayladagi, where the lanes between hundreds of Red Crescent tents are now their playground.

They flash the V-sign to journalists trying to film the camp through a fence covered with blue tarp as watchful police turn away those who come too close.

A man in his 50s told the camera he was shot three months ago during an anti-regime demonstration at a village near Khirbet al-Joz, about a kilometre from the Turkish border.

He said he was arrested by the secret services, treated at a clinic and then put in prison to face torture.

“I was released when (Syrian President Bashar al-Assad) proclaimed the first amnesty” on May 31, said the man, sitting on the ground with other wounded people.

“My finger was torn off. I was hit in the stomach and the kidneys. Thank God, I’m still alive, after four operations in Turkey,” he said. “I am grateful to the Turkish people and the people of Khirbet al-Joz who transported me from Syria to Turkey.”

Another refugee, Tala al-Alouche, is a soldier who deserted the Syrian army.

“We opened fire on unarmed civilians, at Jisr al-Shughur... I could not take it any more and deserted,” he said.

Jisr al-Shughur, a flashpoint in the anti-regime revolt some 40 kilometres from the Turkish border, was the target of a major crackdown by the Syrian security forces in early June, which triggered an exodus to Turkey.

Fifty-one Syrians, including 15 with gunshot wounds, remain under treatment in Turkish hospitals, according to official figures.