Syria - Turkey - Greece - Turkey - Northern Syria
The tragic journey of a Syrian refugee, from Greece back to the earthquake-stricken Afrin
The Syrian refugee M.A., a victim of informal forced return from Greece to Turkey and of degrading and inhumane treatment in October 2021 by the Greek authorities, who was recently forcefully deported from Turkey to Northern Syria, is among the earthquake victims in the city of Afrin. With whatever means at his disposal and despite the difficult situation he has found himself in, he is trying to help his fellow citizens after the devastating earthquakes of February 6. Refugee Support Aegean (RSA) contacted him by phone on February 14, 2023. His testimonies on the situation in the earthquake-stricken Northern Syria and also about his deportation from Turkey to this region, are shocking.
On October 13, 2021, RSA’s lawyer, following a relevant order from M.A., informed the Greek authorities about his desire to submit an asylum request and the need to rescue M.A. and others, who were, according to their testimony and their relative geographical marker, in the area of Orestiada. While the communication with M.A. was interrupted and his fate, along with the rest of his group, was unknown, and while the interim measures procedure was pending before the European Court of Human Rights, M.A. informed us the day after that he and the others in the group had been arrested and detained without due process, and were pushed back to Turkey by the Greek authorities on October 13.[1] According to M.A.’s testimony, the uniformed officers ignored their explicit requests for international protection, they stripped and ill-treated them. They were placed in informal detention without being registered, in isolation in two detention facilities, and were given back only their underwear. Then, according to his testimony, they forced them onto a boat driven by two masked men and left them helpless within Evros river near a stretch of land. The people managed to avoid arrest by the Turkish authorities and were forced to hide in Turkey. “This was the first time. I tried again and once more but was arrested by the Greek authorities and the same day they returned me back to Turkey,” he told us. He explained to us that, throughout his stay in Turkey, he repeatedly tried to be registered by the Turkish authorities and obtain a temporary residence status, but the authorities refused, expelled him and he lived every day in fear of arrest and deportation or forced voluntary return to Syria.
Forced deportation to Syria
After the devastating earthquakes in Turkey and Syria, the Syrian refugee in telephone contact with RSA told us that he is currently in the city of Afrin. “The Turkish authorities deported me back to Syria two months ago. It was the third deportation since I had been forced to leave Syria. It was in December 2022. I left the apartment I was staying in Istanbul to buy some bread. I was then stopped by 4 people in civilian clothes, they spoke to me in Turkish and asked me for a residence permit. When I told them I didn’t have one, they put me in a vehicle and took me to Tuzla. At midnight I was transferred to Adana where I was held until my deportation to Syria – which took place on the fourth day after my arrest.” As he emphasizes in his testimony, the Turkish authorities treated him violently. “My hands were tied, they left me with no water or food for 15 hours, they physically abused me by slapping me on the face and kicking the rest of my body and sweared at me. In Adana they forcibly took my fingerprints. They took the two cell phones I had with me and for 4 days I didn’t have a phone. They only gave me the one mobile phone during my deportation to Syria.”
At the beginning of the arrest, before the confiscation of his mobile phone, he had managed to inform a relative and ask for help from an RSA lawyer, but a Turkish lawyer was not able to locate him afterwards, since the Turkish authorities denied that they had arrested him. He himself, during his detention, had no access to a phone, a lawyer or any information. His deportation was carried out in summary proceedings with no access to temporary protection status or to legal remedy or relief. It is not clear what documents he has signed in Adana, while they did not give him any official documents.
“The Turkish authorities deported me to Syria at the border and I went to Afrin,” he told us. We note that the Afrin region, after the Turkish invasion in 2018, is controlled by the self-proclaimed Free Syrian Army supported by Turkey, who are fighting the Assad regime. “In Afrin I was feeling fear right from the start, I didn’t feel safe because of my personal history in Syria, I tried to hide, to avoid being a target for the authorities. Then came the disaster from the earthquakes. It was 4 am in the morning and I was awake when the first earthquake happened. The house was swaying like a sail. It was raining a lot outside and it was very cold. People came out of their houses barefoot. After the second earthquake, the electricity went out and the city was devastated.” Aftershocks still occur in the area and he was forced to leave the house of a friend where he lived before the earthquake. He now sleeps along with 7 other families in one house.
Solidarity with the earthquake victims of Afrin
M.A., along with others, using any personal money they had available, took the initiative themselves to buy food and other basic necessities and distribute them to other earthquake victims. “I leave the house where I am temporarily staying at 10 in the morning and come back at 3 in the night to sleep. I go wherever there is a need to help.” M.A. also participated in operations along with other residents of the area with their own means to extricate people who were under the collapsed buildings. “Anyone who had a grindstone, a compressor or a heavy vehicle brought it to help. There were no rescue teams in the area[2]. In the rescue operations I participated in we managed to get two people out, but unfortunately they were already dead.”
As he emphasizes, there are too many people who have nowhere to stay and are homeless on the street. According to UN High Commissioner for Refugees data, an estimated 5.3 million people in Syria need some form of housing assistance. “Some of the homeless people don’t even have blankets to cover themselves, while it’s very cold. Many people are hungry. And that’s because food is too expensive for anyone to buy or simply because there is no food. I have eaten 3 meals since the earthquake happened.” The main needs at the moment are blankets, mattresses and tents and food, he explains. “Before the earthquake, a tent cost 30 euros, now it costs 200! We now see help coming, but the Free Syrian Army takes the stuff and distributes it to their own people. The things sent here do not go to the people. We don’t see them. There are also some persons who try to take advantage of the situation, take pictures in the ruins and ask for financial help,” he points out.
In one of his attempts to distribute food along with others, they were stopped by the Free Syrian Army, he explains. “They threatened us with weapons, they wanted to take some of us to prison, they took away the food we distributed. I don’t feel safe here. I’m afraid. Where I am, the Free Syrian Army is worse than Assad’s army in terms of civilian treatment. The situation is very difficult for me and if I had the financial means I would leave from here.”
Notes
The Syrian refugee M.A., a victim of informal forced return from Greece to Turkey and of degrading and inhumane treatment in October 2021 by the Greek authorities, who was recently forcefully deported from Turkey to Northern Syria, is among the earthquake victims in the city of Afrin. With whatever means at his disposal and despite the difficult situation he has found himself in, he is trying to help his fellow citizens after the devastating earthquakes of February 6. Refugee Support Aegean (RSA) contacted him by phone on February 14, 2023. His testimonies on the situation in the earthquake-stricken Northern Syria and also about his deportation from Turkey to this region, are shocking.
On October 13, 2021, RSA’s lawyer, following a relevant order from M.A., informed the Greek authorities about his desire to submit an asylum request and the need to rescue M.A. and others, who were, according to their testimony and their relative geographical marker, in the area of Orestiada. While the communication with M.A. was interrupted and his fate, along with the rest of his group, was unknown, and while the interim measures procedure was pending before the European Court of Human Rights, M.A. informed us the day after that he and the others in the group had been arrested and detained without due process, and were pushed back to Turkey by the Greek authorities on October 13.[1] According to M.A.’s testimony, the uniformed officers ignored their explicit requests for international protection, they stripped and ill-treated them. They were placed in informal detention without being registered, in isolation in two detention facilities, and were given back only their underwear. Then, according to his testimony, they forced them onto a boat driven by two masked men and left them helpless within Evros river near a stretch of land. The people managed to avoid arrest by the Turkish authorities and were forced to hide in Turkey. “This was the first time. I tried again and once more but was arrested by the Greek authorities and the same day they returned me back to Turkey,” he told us. He explained to us that, throughout his stay in Turkey, he repeatedly tried to be registered by the Turkish authorities and obtain a temporary residence status, but the authorities refused, expelled him and he lived every day in fear of arrest and deportation or forced voluntary return to Syria.
Forced deportation to Syria
After the devastating earthquakes in Turkey and Syria, the Syrian refugee in telephone contact with RSA told us that he is currently in the city of Afrin. “The Turkish authorities deported me back to Syria two months ago. It was the third deportation since I had been forced to leave Syria. It was in December 2022. I left the apartment I was staying in Istanbul to buy some bread. I was then stopped by 4 people in civilian clothes, they spoke to me in Turkish and asked me for a residence permit. When I told them I didn’t have one, they put me in a vehicle and took me to Tuzla. At midnight I was transferred to Adana where I was held until my deportation to Syria – which took place on the fourth day after my arrest.” As he emphasizes in his testimony, the Turkish authorities treated him violently. “My hands were tied, they left me with no water or food for 15 hours, they physically abused me by slapping me on the face and kicking the rest of my body and sweared at me. In Adana they forcibly took my fingerprints. They took the two cell phones I had with me and for 4 days I didn’t have a phone. They only gave me the one mobile phone during my deportation to Syria.”
At the beginning of the arrest, before the confiscation of his mobile phone, he had managed to inform a relative and ask for help from an RSA lawyer, but a Turkish lawyer was not able to locate him afterwards, since the Turkish authorities denied that they had arrested him. He himself, during his detention, had no access to a phone, a lawyer or any information. His deportation was carried out in summary proceedings with no access to temporary protection status or to legal remedy or relief. It is not clear what documents he has signed in Adana, while they did not give him any official documents.
“The Turkish authorities deported me to Syria at the border and I went to Afrin,” he told us. We note that the Afrin region, after the Turkish invasion in 2018, is controlled by the self-proclaimed Free Syrian Army supported by Turkey, who are fighting the Assad regime. “In Afrin I was feeling fear right from the start, I didn’t feel safe because of my personal history in Syria, I tried to hide, to avoid being a target for the authorities. Then came the disaster from the earthquakes. It was 4 am in the morning and I was awake when the first earthquake happened. The house was swaying like a sail. It was raining a lot outside and it was very cold. People came out of their houses barefoot. After the second earthquake, the electricity went out and the city was devastated.” Aftershocks still occur in the area and he was forced to leave the house of a friend where he lived before the earthquake. He now sleeps along with 7 other families in one house.
Solidarity with the earthquake victims of Afrin
M.A., along with others, using any personal money they had available, took the initiative themselves to buy food and other basic necessities and distribute them to other earthquake victims. “I leave the house where I am temporarily staying at 10 in the morning and come back at 3 in the night to sleep. I go wherever there is a need to help.” M.A. also participated in operations along with other residents of the area with their own means to extricate people who were under the collapsed buildings. “Anyone who had a grindstone, a compressor or a heavy vehicle brought it to help. There were no rescue teams in the area[2]. In the rescue operations I participated in we managed to get two people out, but unfortunately they were already dead.”
As he emphasizes, there are too many people who have nowhere to stay and are homeless on the street. According to UN High Commissioner for Refugees data, an estimated 5.3 million people in Syria need some form of housing assistance. “Some of the homeless people don’t even have blankets to cover themselves, while it’s very cold. Many people are hungry. And that’s because food is too expensive for anyone to buy or simply because there is no food. I have eaten 3 meals since the earthquake happened.” The main needs at the moment are blankets, mattresses and tents and food, he explains. “Before the earthquake, a tent cost 30 euros, now it costs 200! We now see help coming, but the Free Syrian Army takes the stuff and distributes it to their own people. The things sent here do not go to the people. We don’t see them. There are also some persons who try to take advantage of the situation, take pictures in the ruins and ask for financial help,” he points out.
In one of his attempts to distribute food along with others, they were stopped by the Free Syrian Army, he explains. “They threatened us with weapons, they wanted to take some of us to prison, they took away the food we distributed. I don’t feel safe here. I’m afraid. Where I am, the Free Syrian Army is worse than Assad’s army in terms of civilian treatment. The situation is very difficult for me and if I had the financial means I would leave from here.”
Notes
