Turkey deports 140 Syrian refugees to Idlib
IDLIB, Syria (North Press) – Turkish authorities deported on Monday evening 140 Syrian refugees, including a pregnant woman, to areas in the Idlib Governorate, northwest Syria, through the Bab al-Hawa border crossing, raising the number of deportees today to 200 towards northern and northwestern Syria.
An administrative source at the Bab al-Hawa crossing told North Press that “the Turkish authorities deported around 140 Syrian refugees to Idlib through the Bab al-Hawa crossing, including 37 women with their children, one of whom is in her seventh month of pregnancy, without informing their relatives residing in Turkey of the arrest and the deportation of their children.”
The source added that the Turkish authorities took the eye and hand prints and all their identification documents to prevent them from returning to Turkey.
Earlier today, the Turkish authorities deported 60 people through the Bab al-Salamah crossing, north of Aleppo, raising the total number of deportees to 200 people during the past 24 hours.
Though Syria is still unsafe for returns, Turkey tries to get rid of the refugees by forcibly deporting them, as the Turkish authorities have intensified the forced deportation of Syrians, as part of what they call voluntary return to safe areas in northwestern Syria, according to media and documentary reports.
Since the beginning of July, the Turkish authorities have launched a campaign against the Syrian refugees, especially in Istanbul, where activists say more than 800 people have been deported since the beginning of July.