Turkey deports 700 Syrian refugees to northern Syria
TEL ABYAD, IDLIB, Syria (North Press) – Turkish authorities deported on Wednesday 700 Syrian refugees through Tel Abyad and Bab al-Hawa border crossings in northern and northwestern Syria respectively.
Turkey continues its deportation operations against the Syrian refugees to the areas it controls in northern Syria, under the pretext of voluntary return. These deportation operations have also affected individuals from Arab countries, as they were mistakenly believed to be Syrians, according to social media reports.
According to sources at the Tel Abyad border crossing, Turkish authorities have deported over 230 Syrian refugees, including women and children. The deportees were handed over to factions of the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA), who transferred them to shelters for further investigation.
As for Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which controls much of northwestern Syria, it received 470 Syrian refugees, including women and their children, according to administrative sources at the Bab al-Hawa crossing.
The sources in both crossings said that the deportation process took place after the Turkish authorities collected all personal identification documents of the refugees. The authorities also took their biometric data to ensure that they would not return to Turkish territory.
According to administrative sources from the crossings of Bab al-Hawa and Tel Abyad, the number of Syrians forcibly deported exceeded 14,500 in September.