Turkey Is Shooting Refugees and Illegally Sending People Back to Syria, Say Rights Groups
By Reuters and VICE News
April 1, 2016 | 7:00 am
Turkey has illegally returned thousands of Syrians to their war-torn homeland in recent months, according to an Amnesty International report released on Friday — while another rights monitor alleged Turkish border guards had shot dead 16 refugees in the last four months, including three children.
Amnesty said it had gathered evidence suggesting Turkish authorities had been rounding up and expelling groups of around 100 Syrian men, women, and children almost daily since the middle of January. Many of those returned to Syria appear to be unregistered refugees, though the rights group said it had also documented cases of registered Syrians being returned when apprehended while not carrying their papers.
On Thursday, the UK-based monitoring group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it had gathered evidence detailing cases of 16 migrants shot dead as they attempted to cross the border from Syria into Turkey, and it believed the true number was much higher.
Turkey's actions highlight the serious dangers for migrants sent back to the country from Europe under a deal due to come into effect next week, according to Amnesty.
Turkey agreed with the European Union (EU) this month to take back all migrants and refugees who cross illegally to
Greece in exchange for financial aid, faster visa-free travel for Turks, and slightly accelerated EU membership talks.
But the legality of the deal hinges on Turkey being a safe country of asylum, which Amnesty said in its report was clearly not the case. It said it was likely that several thousand refugees had been sent back to Syria in mass returns in the past seven to nine weeks, flouting Turkish, EU, and international law.
Three young children forced back into Syria without their parents and the forced return of an eight-month pregnant woman are among the cases Amnesty says it has documented.
"In their desperation to seal their borders, EU leaders have wilfully ignored the simplest of facts: Turkey is not a safe country for Syrian refugees and is getting less safe by the day," said John Dalhuisen, Amnesty International's director for Europe and Central Asia.
"The large-scale returns of Syrian refugees we have documented highlight the fatal flaws in the EU-Turkey deal. It is a deal that can only be implemented with the hardest of hearts and a blithe disregard for international law."
Turkey's foreign ministry denied Syrians were being sent back against their will. Turkey had maintained an "open door" policy for Syrian migrants for five years and strictly abided by the "non-refoulement" principle of not returning someone to a country where they are liable to face persecution, it said.
"None of the Syrians that have demanded protection from our country are being sent back to their country by force, in line with international and national law," a foreign ministry official told Reuters.
But Amnesty said testimonies it had gathered in Turkey's southern border provinces contradict this. Alongside the details of the Syrians apparently forcibly returned, Amnesty has also documented Afghan asylum seekers being forced to board planes back to Afghanistan, since the EU deal was signed.
It also says its research shows the authorities have scaled back the registration of Syrian refugees in the southern border provinces. Those with no registration have no access to basic services such as healthcare and education.
Under the deal with the EU, Turkey is supposed to be taking in migrants returned from Greece on April 4, but uncertainty remains over how many will be sent back, how they will be processed, and where they will be housed.
The aim is to close the main route by which a million migrants and refugees poured across the Aegean Sea to Greece in the last year before heading north, mainly to Germany and Sweden.
"The large-scale returns of Syrian refugees we have documented highlight the fatal flaws in the EU-Turkey deal. It is a deal that can only be implemented with the hardest of hearts and a blithe disregard for international law," Amnesty's Dalhuisen said.
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By Reuters and VICE News
April 1, 2016 | 7:00 am
Turkey has illegally returned thousands of Syrians to their war-torn homeland in recent months, according to an Amnesty International report released on Friday — while another rights monitor alleged Turkish border guards had shot dead 16 refugees in the last four months, including three children.
Amnesty said it had gathered evidence suggesting Turkish authorities had been rounding up and expelling groups of around 100 Syrian men, women, and children almost daily since the middle of January. Many of those returned to Syria appear to be unregistered refugees, though the rights group said it had also documented cases of registered Syrians being returned when apprehended while not carrying their papers.
On Thursday, the UK-based monitoring group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it had gathered evidence detailing cases of 16 migrants shot dead as they attempted to cross the border from Syria into Turkey, and it believed the true number was much higher.
Turkey's actions highlight the serious dangers for migrants sent back to the country from Europe under a deal due to come into effect next week, according to Amnesty.
Turkey agreed with the European Union (EU) this month to take back all migrants and refugees who cross illegally to
Greece in exchange for financial aid, faster visa-free travel for Turks, and slightly accelerated EU membership talks.
But the legality of the deal hinges on Turkey being a safe country of asylum, which Amnesty said in its report was clearly not the case. It said it was likely that several thousand refugees had been sent back to Syria in mass returns in the past seven to nine weeks, flouting Turkish, EU, and international law.
Three young children forced back into Syria without their parents and the forced return of an eight-month pregnant woman are among the cases Amnesty says it has documented.
"In their desperation to seal their borders, EU leaders have wilfully ignored the simplest of facts: Turkey is not a safe country for Syrian refugees and is getting less safe by the day," said John Dalhuisen, Amnesty International's director for Europe and Central Asia.
"The large-scale returns of Syrian refugees we have documented highlight the fatal flaws in the EU-Turkey deal. It is a deal that can only be implemented with the hardest of hearts and a blithe disregard for international law."
Turkey's foreign ministry denied Syrians were being sent back against their will. Turkey had maintained an "open door" policy for Syrian migrants for five years and strictly abided by the "non-refoulement" principle of not returning someone to a country where they are liable to face persecution, it said.
"None of the Syrians that have demanded protection from our country are being sent back to their country by force, in line with international and national law," a foreign ministry official told Reuters.
But Amnesty said testimonies it had gathered in Turkey's southern border provinces contradict this. Alongside the details of the Syrians apparently forcibly returned, Amnesty has also documented Afghan asylum seekers being forced to board planes back to Afghanistan, since the EU deal was signed.
It also says its research shows the authorities have scaled back the registration of Syrian refugees in the southern border provinces. Those with no registration have no access to basic services such as healthcare and education.
Under the deal with the EU, Turkey is supposed to be taking in migrants returned from Greece on April 4, but uncertainty remains over how many will be sent back, how they will be processed, and where they will be housed.
The aim is to close the main route by which a million migrants and refugees poured across the Aegean Sea to Greece in the last year before heading north, mainly to Germany and Sweden.
"The large-scale returns of Syrian refugees we have documented highlight the fatal flaws in the EU-Turkey deal. It is a deal that can only be implemented with the hardest of hearts and a blithe disregard for international law," Amnesty's Dalhuisen said.
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