Turkey Forcibly deports Refugees to Syria Daily: STJ
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – On Wednesday, Syrians for Truth and Justice (STJ) organization, published a report confirming that the Turkish authorities “forcibly and arbitrarily” deport Syrian refugees from Turkey.
In early 2022, the Turkish government adopted harsher arrest and return measures against Syrian refugees, STJ said.
The deportation measures were enforced across Turkey, but climaxed in Istanbul governorate.
The Turkish authority illegally returns Syrian refugees despite some of them obtained official Turkish documents allowing them to work stay and study in Turkey, according to STJ.
Over January 2022, the Turkish authorities deported hundreds of Syrian refugees. The deportation took place on batches and through three main border crossings namely Bab al-Hawa in Idlib province, Bab al-Salameh in Aleppo province, and Tal Abyad in Raqqa, the report read.
Prior to the deportation, Syrian refugees are detained in deportation camps and centers where they were maltreated, and coerced into signing ‘voluntary return’ documents, STJ said.
STJ quoted a commander of the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA), who serves at Bab al-Salameh Border Crossing, as saying, “In December and January, daily batches of Syrian refugees were deported, varying between 25 and 50 refugees through Bab al-Salameh crossing, 50 to 100 through Bab al-Hawa, and 10 to 20 through Tal Abyad.”
“These numbers do not include persons detained and returned while trying to enter Turkey illegally, or persons who voluntary returned to Syria and of their own accord,” the commander added.
The deported refugees are subjected to different enforced practices, “The Levant Front/al-Jabha al-Shamiya offers the returned water and facilitates their movement. However, the 9th Division and The Mu’tasim Division subject the returned refugees to interrogation, take their photos, and send them to security forces, saying these people might be threatening.
For its part, the Sultan Murad Division arrests any Kurdish person they find among the returned and refer them to interrogation, which is carried out in the presence of a Turkish officer.” The commander noted to the
From time to time, the Turkish authorities launch campaigns related to the arrest of Syrians, and then to organize the necessary files against them to deport them to Syria.
According to international reports, Turkey houses about four million Syrians who fled war and deteriorating conditions in their homeland.
According to a statement published by the Bab al-Hawa border crossing management, northwest Syria, the number of Syrian refugees who were deported from Turkey to northern Syria in January 2021, reached 2,229.
The Turkish authorities also invoke the deportation of Syrians, “under the pretext of fabricating some problems that do not rise to the level of making a decision to deport to areas that may not be safe for Syrians, even if they are in Idlib and its countryside.”
Reporting by Sara Youssef