BALADI NEWS
The Turkish government has been forcibly deporting refugees to war-torn Syria, two international rights groups have alleged, days after Ankara concluded a cross-border operation partly aimed at creating a so-called "safe zone" to settle millions of refugees living in Turkey.
Amnesty International said in a report, which was released on Friday and was based on 28 interviews with refugees, that Turkish police had beaten, threatened or tricked them into signing documents stating they were asking to return to Syria.
In a written statement to Al Jazeera, Hami Aksoy, spokesman for the Turkish foreign ministry spokesman, said the report's claims that Syrians have been forcibly returned to their country, threatened and ill-treated were "untrue and imaginary".
"While we are hosting four million Syrian refugees, including 3.6 million Syrians, within our borders, we are studiously implementing our policy of 'non-refoulement'," he said.
He added: "Our authorities has been carrying out the 'repatriating process' in collaboration UN refugee agency and other non-governmental organisations. Our country has in every opportunity always stressed that refugee returns should be voluntary, secure and in line with the international law."
But Amnesty said its interviews documented 20 verified cases of forced deportations in the months before the launch of Turkey's military operation in northeast Syria on October 9. It said the alleged deportations involved people being sent across the Syrian border on buses filled with dozens of other people, who, the interviewees said, were handcuffed with plastic ties and were also seemingly being forcibly deported.
"Some said they were beaten or threatened with violence to force them to sign. Others were told they were signing a registration document, that it was a confirmation of having received a blanket from a detention centre, or a form that expressed their desire to remain in Turkey," Amnesty said.
The London-based group said it estimated that over the past few months, hundreds of refugees were forcibly deported to Syria, adding that it was illegal to do so as "it exposed them to a real risk of serious human rights violations".
In a separate statement released late on Thursday, US-based Human Rights Watch also said that authorities arbitrarily detained and deported Syrians to northern Syria between January and September 2019.
"Deported Syrians said that Turkish officials forced them to sign forms they were not allowed to read, in some cases after beating or threatening them, and transported them to Syria," the rights group said.
Human Rights Watch said it spoke with 12 Syrians by phone about their arrest and detention in Turkey and deportation to Idlib in northern Syria, with two Syrians in person who fled Idlib after being deported there and who returned to Turkey, and with the wife of a man deported from Istanbul.
According to the group, 13 said they were deported by bus between July and September. Three said the other bus passengers, a total of about 100, told them they were being returned to Syria against their will.
Gerry Simpson, associate crisis and conflict director at Human Rights Watch said: "Turkey hosts four times as many Syrians as the European Union, but that does not mean it can return them to a war zone."
Simpson added: "With the Syrian conflict recently taking another deadly turn, the EU should be helping Turkey respond to a reality that requires ongoing protection for millions of refugees."
Source: Al Jazeera.