Smuggling to Turkey, a trade by the Turkish border guards and the HTS
Idlib – North-Press Agency
Over the years of the war, hundreds of Syrians, including women and children have been trying on a daily basis to cross the borders into Turkey illegally, especially in Idlib governorate to escape the war and in search for a livelihood, accompanied by being exposed to fraud from smugglers, beatings, and being targeted by the gunshots of the Turkish borders guards.
The cost of smuggling
Abu al-Fawz, a smuggler on the borders near Khirbet al-Jawz told North-Press that the cost of smuggling ranges from $450 to $2,500 per person, and these prices come according to the way of smuggling, whether it is normal or secured.
Abu al-Fawz added that he takes $500 per person, in a normal smuggling load, in groups, each group has a guide person on the way, and the group is between 25 and 35 people, who are trying to cross the borders surreptitiously after 1 p.m., or before dawn. He continued that these groups are often exposed to direct gunshots by the Turkish border guards, in addition to being arrested, pointing out that the group once they cross the borders, they cannot return, as the border guards detain them for more than 12 hours, then release them.
Smuggling ways
Regarding the secured way of smuggling, Abu al-Fouz said that there are several different secured ways. Some of them are done in agreement with alternate Turkish military officers, and another with the Turkish border guards at the alternating point, the price paid for the Turkish officers differs from the ones paid for the border guards.
He stressed that crossing the borders in agreement with the Turkish officers costs about $2,000, whereby the Turkish military officers transport people by their personal cars or military vehicles, and the largest proportion of this amount goes for the Turkish officers, while the smuggler’s share is very simple, pointing out that the number of people who pay such amounts to cross the borders is very little, as their number does not exceed 30 persons per month.
While the agreement with the border guards is at a price of about $1,300 per person, where the Turkish border guards clear the point for a certain period of two or three hours, where dozens of people, including women and children enter in this period.
Abu al-Fawaz indicated that all smugglers do not take wages until the group reaches the other side of the border, inside Turkey, where the money is placed at a third party inside Syria, and this is through the contact of the people with their relatives to assure them they have reached the area they want, and on the basis of which the money is delivered for the smuggler.
Official entry
A worker at Bab al-Hawa border-crossing assured to North-Press that some leaders of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham HTS in cooperation with the Turkish side are securing official entries for people from the border crossing into the Turkish side, and the cost of this route is about $2,000 per person.
The amount of money is shared between the Turkish military officers and the leaders of HTS, but the number of people entering via this route is few due to the high price, forcing hundreds of people to cross the borders illegally, by jumping over the concrete separation wall.
Mohammad al-Zahir from northern Hama told North-Press that he and his three brothers tried to enter the Turkish territories several times, each time they try to cross the border they would be spotted by the Turkish border guards.
He pointed out that they had been severely beaten by the Turkish border guards, and then a Turkish patrol took them into a stadium near the town of Reyhanli, and they were held there for more than 12 hours.
"I will never go Turkey again"
“Even if I become a beggar, I will not go to Turkey again,” Muhammad said to his family after he tasted the woe of the Turkish military whom he described as monsters, in addition to torturing him in front of his family and brothers, as well as the fraud operations that they were exposed to throughout the time they spent near the town of Harem, northern Idlib.
A woman named Fatima Khaled Azun was shot dead by the Turkish border guards, while she was trying to cross the Syrian-Turkish borders yesterday.
According to several sources indicated that the HTS deployed dozens of outposts and points in towns and cities adjacent to the Syrian-Turkish borders, that its work is not to protect the borders, but to secure the smuggling operations as the leaders of HTS call it.
The headquarters of HTS imposes sums of money on smugglers and people who are smuggled by cutting off a receipt (a paper containing the name of the person and the name of the smuggler), and it is priced at $25 per person, in addition to sums of money that HTS imposes on smugglers up to $25-50 per person to be smuggled. The sources pointed out that the HTS's profits from crossing the borders reach more than $100 thousand per day.
According to the Violations Documentation Center in northern Syria VDC-NSY, the number of the Syrians who were shot dead by the Turkish border guards has reached to 447 refugees, including 83 children under the age of 18 and 56 women, and the number of people killed by gunshots or assault has increased to 420 of those who try to cross the borders.