By Mo’ayed al-Sheikh
IDLIB, Syria (North Press) – On June 29, Taha Khaldoun, 30 and suffering from asthma, was transferred to the Public Hospital in the city of Antakya, southern Turkey. He lost consciousness as a result of his deteriorating health after being tortured by police officers at the Jisr al-Hadid deportation center. The police had arrested him along with many young men in Istanbul to forcibly deport them to Syrian territory.
Syrians who were deported by Turkish authorities to Syrian territories controlled by the Turkish-backed armed opposition factions, aka the Syrian National Army (SNA), and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS, formerly al-Nusra Front) in northwest Syria, said refugees detained by the Turkish security forces and police in deportation centers have been subjected to torture and severe beatings to force them to sign “voluntary deportation” papers to north and northwest Syria.
About two months ago, Turkey launched the largest campaign against Syrian refugees to forcibly deport them to Syrian territories. According to activists, Turkey wants to “deport more than 5,000 Syrian refugees to areas in Idlib Governorate, the northern countryside of Aleppo, and the countryside of Raqqa and Hasakah.”
Arrest and torture
Khaldoun, an IDP from the town of Khan Shaykhun, south of Idlib, told North Press that while he was going with his wife to the hospital in the Fatih district in Istanbul, he was stopped by a police patrol that arrested anyone they thought was a Syrian without asking for his identification papers.
He did not try to escape, as some young men did when they saw the patrol. “I have a Temporary Protection Card (Kimlik) of Istanbul. Supposedly, those who reside in the same location written on the Kimlik would not be arrested. However, the opposite happened,” Khaldoun said.
“Three officers detained me and my wife, and immediately tied our hands and put us inside a car with other people, some were Afghans and Iraqis,” he told North Press.
“My wife, who speaks Turkish fluently, told them that we have the Kimlik of Istanbul and a permission to work there. The officer told us that even if you are Syrians and have Turkish citizenship, I will deport you to your country. You do not belong here,” he added.
Khaldoun and his wife were transferred to the deportation center in the Esenyurt district, Istanbul, and from there they were transferred with more than 150 people via police buses to Jisr al-Hadid prison in the city of Antakya. They were detained for more than a week, later he was hospitalized and placed in intensive care for about 24 hours as a result of the deterioration of his health due to torture and severe beatings at the hands of the police.
“Police officers fired tear gas bombs and pepper spray at the detainees on a daily basis. This caused me many health problems, particularly because I suffer from asthma. I was taken to the hospital and they forced me to sign deportation papers to the town of Tel Abyad, northern Raqqa,” he said.
On July 9, Ibrahim Sarmini was transferred with more than 40 people to the deportation center in Kaysari province, central Turkey, where he thought he would be deported the next day, but that did not happen.
Sarmini and other women and men with him were detained in that center for more than 15 days. Then, they were transferred via police buses to the deportation center at Geri Gondar prison in Kaysari city where Syrians are forced to sign voluntary return papers.
Torture methods
“We stayed detained in Kaysari for 25 days, during which the prison administration would take most of those detained there in batches to rooms designated for torture. In fact, I was shocked when I saw that room. For a moment I thought I was in the prisons of the Syrian regime, particularly the Saydnaya prison,” Sarmini told North Press.
“Over 25 days, we were subjected to torture and severe beatings with batons and iron bars. Each person was tortured for half an hour and then placed inside a refrigerated truck for transporting vegetables for about an hour and then brought back to his cell freezing,” he said.
Fahd al-Halabi, a Syrian human rights activist who follows the situation of Syrians in Turkey, told North Press that in the last two years there were clear instructions about Syrian refugees in Turkey. The goal, as Turkish President Erdogan promoted, was about to send one million Syrians back to what he describes as safe zones in northern Syria.
The instructions were issued and sent to 81 Turkish provinces for implementation. They stated to launch a campaign against illegal refugees who violate the Turkish laws, but it was not true. The campaign included illegal and legal refugees too, who had all the required papers.
The Turkish minister of Interior stated that those who had legal papers and were deported, were done so by individual mistakes and their cases will be addressed. However, after the elections, the green light was given again to launch public campaigns against everyone, not only illegal refugees.
Al-Halabi pointed out that arrested refugees are forcibly tortured in order to force them to sign the voluntary return papers. When they do not sign, they stay for a minimum period of 6 months in detention centers, then they are released if they are charged with terrorism or otherwise.