Tayyip Erdogan’s government is carrying out mass arrests of contractors, while the death toll from the deadly earthquakes rises and social discontent swells.

Turkey will widen the investigations for building contractors suspected of violating safety standards, the country’s interior minister said, as the country ramps up plans to house those affected by the recent devastating earthquake.

Suleiman Soylu noted that 564 suspects have been identified so far, while 160 have been arrested, and many more are still under investigation.

“Our cities will be built in the right places, our children will live in stronger cities. We know what kind of test we face and we will emerge stronger from it.” Soylou assured the state-run TRT Haber network.

The president of Turkey committed to the reconstruction of the houses within one year.

Erdogan, who has been in power for two decades, faces an election in four months. Even before the quake, polls showed it was under pressure from rising living costs, which may be exacerbated by the disaster’s disruption to agricultural production.

Soylou noted that about 313,000 scenes have been set up and that 100,000 containers will be installed in the earthquake-affected zone to house the homeless.

The death toll from this month’s earthquakes in Turkey increased to 43,556, Shoilou declared at night.

According to the Minister of the Interior, after the first earthquake on February 6, 7,930 aftershocks have been recorded and more than 600,000 apartments and 150,000 commercial establishments have sustained at least moderate damage.

Urban Development Minister Murat Kurum said 164,000 buildings with more than 530,000 apartments had been destroyed or severely damaged by the earthquake.

The Turkish government has already started the procedures to award contracts for the construction of new apartments in the affected area, Kurum added.

Turkey also launched a temporary wage support program on Wednesday and banned layoffs in 10 cities to protect workers and businesses from the economic impact of the earthquake that hit the southern part of the country.

The powerful 7.8-magnitude earthquake on February 6 damaged or destroyed hundreds of thousands of buildings and left millions of people homeless.

About 865,000 people are staying in tents and 23,500 in containers, while 376,000 are in student dormitories and public hostels outside the affected zone, Erdogan said on Tuesday.