Human Rights Watch revealed on Sunday that Turkish authorities have arbitrarily arrested, detained and deported hundreds of Syrian refugee men and boys to Syria in recent months.
In a lengthy report, the organization said it conducted, between February and August, telephone or face-to-face interviews within Turkey with 37 Syrian men and boys, who had been registered for temporary protection in Turkey, as well as eight relatives. of Syrian refugees who were deported by the Turkish authorities to northern Turkey, Syria during this period.
“Turkish officials deported 37 people we interviewed to northern Syria. All said they were deported along with dozens or even hundreds of others,” he said.
In June, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said 15,149 Syrian refugees had voluntarily returned to Syria this year.
Local authorities controlling Bab al-Hawa and Bab al-Salam crossings publish the monthly number of people who crossed their checkpoints from Turkey to Syria, and between last February and August, 11,645 people were repatriated through Bab al-Hawa and 8,404 people were returned through Bab al-Salam.
Human Rights Watch cited deported people who said they were forced to sign forms either in deportation centers or on the border with Syria, their consent to voluntary return to Syria.
Some of the deportees said officials covered the Arabic hand part of the form and most reported seeing authorities in deportation centers treat other Syrians in the same way.
The organization noted that many of them said they saw Turkish officials beat up other men who initially refused to sign, so they felt they had no other choice.
He cited two men who were held in a deportation center in Adana who were given the option to sign a form and return to Syria or be held for a year, “both chose to leave because they couldn’t stand the idea of spending a year in detention and they needed to support their families. ”
The organization indicated that others were able to contact the lawyers through the intervention of their family members to obtain their release. “Some were released and warned that if they did not return to their hometown, they would be deported if found elsewhere.”
However, many of them are still in deportation centers awaiting a resolution of their case, not knowing the reason for their detention and fearing deportation. “The freedmen described life in Turkey as dangerous, saying they were staying at home, closing their tents and restricting their movements to avoid Turkish authorities,” according to the report.
The organization revealed that the deportees were taken from deportation centers to the border, sometimes with journeys of up to 21 hours, handcuffed all the way and forced to go through the checkpoints of Ungo Pinar / Bab al-Salam or Siligouzo. / Bab al-Hawa, leading to uncontrolled areas, government control of Syria.
And Nadia Hardman, a refugee and migrant rights researcher at Human Rights Watch, said the Turkish authorities arrested hundreds of Syrian refugees, “including unaccompanied minors, and forced them to return to northern Syria. “constitutes a” violation of international norms “. law.”
Turkey has provided temporary protection to 3.6 million Syrian refugees.
And last May, to announce Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he intends to resettle one million refugees in northern Syria, in areas not controlled by the government.
The organization claims that “Syria is not yet safe for the return of refugees,” noting that the regime which caused the displacement of more than six million refugees and committed massive human rights violations against its citizens even before the beginning of the revolution, is still in power.
