Turkey deports 3,500 Syrian refugees to northern Syria
IDLIB, Syria (North Press) – The Turkish authorities have deported more than 3,500 Syrians through the border crossings of Tel Abyad, Bab al-Salama, and Bab al-Hawa in northern Syria over the past five days.
According to official sources within the aforementioned crossings, the Turkish authorities have deported 3,500 Syrians, including 600 women and children, to northern Syria at a rate of 700 people per day since the beginning of November.
The sources considered the deportation operations during November to be more intense than the previous month of October, noting the inability of shelter centers to accommodate the large numbers of deportees from Turkey.
They explained that the authorities handed over 550 Syrians to factions of Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) at the Tel Abyad border crossing in northern Raqqa Governorate, northern Syria, while 900 others were handed over to the other SNA factions at the Bab al-Salama crossing, northern Aleppo Governorate, northern Syria. All of them were transported to shelter centers for investigation.
The Turkish authorities also handed over 2,050 Syrians, including 260 women and children, to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS, formerly known as al-Nusra Front) at the Bab al-Hawa border crossing, northern Idlib, northwestern Syria.
It was noted that the deportation process was carried out after the Turkish authorities withdrew all personal identification documents from the deportees, then took their fingerprints and retinal scans and imprinted them on voluntary return papers to ensure they do not return to Turkey.