Turkey deports over 900 refugees to northern Syria
IDLIB, Syria (North Press) – Turkish authorities deported on Monday over 900 Syrian refugees, including women, through the Bab al-Salama, Tel Abyad, and Bab al-Hawa border crossings in northern Syria.
Sources in the border crossings of Tel Abyad, Bab al-Hawa, and Bab al-Salama told North Press that Turkish authorities deported over 970 Syrians, including 215 women and children, handing them over to Turkish-backed armed opposition factions, aka the Syrian National Army (SNA) who control those crossings.
The sources added that 135 Syrians were handed over by Turkey to the SNA through Tel Abyad border crossing in the north of Raqqa, northern Syria.
Additionally, 240 Syrians were handed over through Bab al-Salama crossing in the countryside of Aleppo, northwestern Syria, and were transferred to shelter centers for investigation.
Turkey also handed over 595 individuals to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS, formerly al-Nusra Front) through Bab al-Hawa crossing, according to the same sources.
The deportation process took place after Turkish authorities seized all identification documents of the deportees and took fingerprints and iris scans to ensure they would not be able to return to Turkey.
Turkey continues daily forced deportation of hundreds of Syrian refugees through these border crossings. In December 2023, over 15,000 refugees were deported.