Syrians shot and tortured by Turkish border guards: HRW

 


Syrians trying to leave their war-torn nation into Turkey have been accused of being shot at, tortured, and subjected to excessive force by Turkish border guards, according to Human Rights Watch.

It demanded that Ankara look into border guards, bring to justice those involved for "grave human rights violations, including unlawful killings," and put a stop to the "longstanding impunity for these abuses."

Turkish border guards are "indiscriminately shooting at Syrian civilians on the border, torturing asylum seekers, and using excessive force against migrants trying to cross," according to a statement from the New York-based rights organisation.

Since 2011, more than 500,000 people have died and millions have been displaced due to the violence in Syria.

According to the UN refugee agency, Turkey, which has 3.6 million registered Syrian refugees, and Syria are separated by a lengthy border.

According to HRW, Turkey's gracious hosting of a sizable number of Syrian refugees does not relieve it of its responsibility to uphold the rights of all people seeking safety at its borders.

It mentioned a March 11 incident in which border guards "intercepted and tortured a group of eight Syrians who had attempted to cross into Turkiye... killing a boy and one man" and sending the others back to Syria.

Hugh Williamson of HRW noted that Turkish gendarmes and other armed troops in charge of border control regularly mistreat and fire at Syrians along the Syrian-Turkish border, with hundreds of fatalities and injuries documented in recent years.

As part of a pattern of cruelty by Turkish border guards that the government has failed to properly stop or investigate, "arbitrary killings of Syrians are particularly egregious."

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based organisation that monitors the conflict, Turkish border guards have shot and killed 12 Syrians and injured 20 others since the year's beginning.

HRW urged Ankara to "urgently conduct a full review" of border security strategy, saying that while Turkey is entitled to safeguard its border with Syria, it must do so in accordance with international law and particularly its human rights commitments.


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