ISTANBUL: Human Rights Watch on Thursday accused Turkish border guards of torturing, shooting, and using massive force against Syrians trying to flee their war-racked country into neighboring Turkey.
It demanded that Ankara launch an investigation into border guards, bring to justice those who have committed “grave human rights violations, including unlawful killings,” and stop the “longstanding impunity for these abuses.”
“Guards at the Turkish border are shooting at Syrian civilians without any discrimination on the border and torturing and using massive force against migrants and asylum seekers seeking to cross the border,” the New York-based rights group said in a press statement.
War in Syria since 2011 has killed more than half a million innocent people and displaced millions.
According to the UN refugee agency, Turkey, which Syria shares a long border with, is home to almost 3.6 million officially registered Syrian refugees. 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.
In a March 11 incident, it was stated that border guards “intercepted and tortured a group of eight Syrians who had attempted to cross into Turkey… killing a boy and one man” and sending the rest back to Syria.
“Hundreds of injuries and deaths have been reported in recent years along the Syrian-Turkish border due to routine abuse and indiscriminate shooting by Turkish gendarmes and armed forces in charge of border control,” claimed HRW’s Hugh Williamson.
The government has failed to adequately stop or examine the pattern of cruelty by Turkish border guards, which includes the particularly terrible practice of killing Syrians without cause. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor headquartered in Britain, Turkish border guards have reportedly killed 12 Syrians and injured 20 others since the year’s beginning.
“While Turkey has a right to secure its border with Syria, it must do so per international law and, in particular, its human rights-related obligations,” HRW stated, demanding Ankara to conduct a full review of its border security policy urgently.
Despite formally blocking the border with Syria, Turkey has occasionally allowed Syrians to return home for major holidays and has frequently granted entry for medical and humanitarian needs.
But Ankara has reinforced border restrictions since a devastating February 6 earthquake hit Turkey and Syria, killing thousands.
