Rumors began to circulate at the beginning of the year, soon transformed into certainties. Several stories of forced expulsions of Syrian refugees by the Turkish authorities first spread on social networks or by word of mouth, arrests in the streets of the country’s major cities or in workplaces. Here, it is a Syrian driver who, after having been the victim of a road accident, is suddenly taken on board by the police officers who have come to the scene. There, a small group of refugees harassed by young people with the obvious aim of triggering an intervention by the police. Again, a banal summons for an administrative procedure followed by a police check and a forced return to the border.
And then in June, the European Court of Human Rights accused the Turkish authorities of violating the rights of a Syrian citizen, Muhammad Fawzi Akkad, for having “arbitrarily expelled to his own country” despite a valid residence permit. Ankara is ordered to pay 12,250 euros to Mr. Akkad for non-pecuniary damage. The court has “also felt that handcuffing the person along with other Syrians during the bus ride, which lasted almost twenty hours, amounted to humiliating treatment”.
On Monday, October 24, the NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) decided to make public a first detailed and reasoned investigation into the multiplication of a phenomenon whose extent, however, is still poorly understood. About fifty testimonies from deportees and relatives have enabled its author, Nadia Hardman, to shed harsh light on some of the deportations in progress, in flagrant violation of international law. According to the report, the number of Syrian refugees “arbitrarily arrested, detained and deported to Syria by the Turkish authorities” amounts, between February and July 2022, to ” several hundred (…) including unaccompanied children”. And again, underlines Nadia Hardman, reached by telephone, “Is this probably only a minimum estimate”.
Complete reversal of the reception policy
Testimonies and stories refer to arrests at home or in town and poor conditions of detention. “Most of the refugees suffered abuse and beatings, says the document. They were rounded up and forced to sign voluntary return forms before being taken to border crossing points with northern Syria and forced to cross at gunpoint. »
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