ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Turkey must investigate and hold accountable border guards responsible for torturing, killing, and committing other grave human rights violations against Syrians with impunity, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Thursday in a report.
The report accused Turkish border guards of indiscriminately targeting Syrians across the border by using excessive force against asylum seekers to block them from crossing the border into Turkey.
“Turkish gendarmes and armed forces in charge of border control routinely abuse and indiscriminately shoot at Syrians along the Syrian-Turkish border, with hundreds of deaths and injuries recorded in recent years,” said Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at HRW.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) in mid-March reported that Turkish gendarme violations against Syrians have killed 11 and injured 20 on the border since the beginning of the year. HRW said it had independently verified two of the incidents.
“Arbitrary killings of Syrians are particularly egregious and part of a pattern of brutality by Turkish border guards that the government has failed to curb or investigate efficiently,” Williamson added.
According to data from a monitor verified by HRW, 277 incidents had taken place on the border between October 2015 and April 2023, causing at least 234 deaths and 231 injuries.
“Twenty-six incidents involved children, with at least 20 killed and 15 injured. Significantly, at least 6 people who were not attempting to cross the border were shot dead and another 6 were injured,” HRW said, referring to the data by the organization which spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The rights organization further blasted Turkey by saying its “generous hosting of large numbers of Syrians” does not excuse the use of violent force against individuals who traverse to the border looking for safety.
“Human Rights Watch also documented Turkish authorities’ deportation of hundreds of long-time Syrian beneficiaries of temporary protection, including by forcing people to sign voluntary departure forms,” the US-based organization stated, calling on Ankara to “respect the principle of nonrefoulement” which prohibits asylum seekers from returning to areas where they are likely to face persecution, torture, or other threats.
Independently verified data shows that a sizeable nearly 69 percent of fatal incidents on the border were in Idlib province, controlled by Islamist rebel groups backed by Turkey while Aleppo province - which has its northern areas controlled by both Turkey and Turkish-backed rebels and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) - tops the list in nonfatal incidents.
The report said on March 11, border guards had “viciously beat and tortured a group of eight Syrians” who were attempting to cross into Turkey, resulting in the death of a man and a boy in custody. The rights group added that six guards are under investigation for their role in the incident.
According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), around 3.6 million Syrian refugees live in Turkey.
To address smuggling and illegal border crossings, Turkey erected a 3-meter high wall between 2015 and 2018 along the border with Syria. However, border guards continue to beat and shoot at Syrians attempting to cross, expelling them back to the war-torn country.
