Turkish-backed faction in Syria’s Afrin forces IDPs to pay money for return
AFRIN, Syria (North Press) – Yesterday on Wednesday, a Turkish-backed armed faction in the Turkish-controlled city of Afrin, northwest Syria, imposed large sums of money on Afrin IDPs in turn for their return to their homes in Afrin.
In a meeting held by the Turkish-backed al-Amshat faction in Shiyeh District west of Afrin, residents were told to inform their IDP relatives to pay $2,000 in exchange for their return to their houses.
“The armed faction threatened to arrest and confiscate houses of those who try to enter secretly without paying the imposed sum, and to punish their families that try to hid them,” a local source told North Press.
As a result of the military operation named Olive Branch by Turkey and Turkish-backed armed factions in 2018 on Afrin, more than 300,000 people fled to areas in the northern countryside of Aleppo, according to Human Rights Organization in Afrin.
Meanwhile, some IDPs resorted to the camps of al-Awda, Afrin, Barkhodan, Sardam and Shahba, while others were distributed to about 42 abandoned and destroyed villages and towns in the northern countryside of Aleppo.