Turkish authorities arbitrarily arrested, detained, and deported hundreds of Syrian male refugees to Syria between February and July 2022, Human Rights Watch (HRW) announced on Monday (October 23). The rights group slammed Turkey's deportations saying they were a "violation of international law."

Turkish officials arrested scores of Syrian refugees – including unaccompanied children – in their homes, workplaces and on the street – mostly in Istanbul. They then detained them in poor conditions and forced them back to northern Syria, HRW said, citing reports from deported migrants. Some of the arresting officials had introduced themselves as Turkish police officers, and demanded to see the refugees' identification papers, they said.

Turkish authorities also "beat and abused most of them, forced them to sign voluntary return forms, drove them to border crossing points with northern Syria, and forced them across at gunpoint," HRW said in their new report.

Refugees say they were forced to sign repatriation forms 

HRW based its latest report on interviews conducted between February and August with 37 Syrian men and two Syrian boys, who had been registered for temporary protection in Turkey then deported to northern Syria. The rights group also interviewed seven relatives of Syrian refugees whom Turkish authorities deported to northern Syria during this time.

The 37 refugees told HRW they were deported together with dozens or even hundreds of others and that they were forced to sign forms either at removal centers or the border with Syria. They also said Turkish authorities did not let them read the forms or explain them but understood the forms to be allegedly agreeing to voluntary repatriation. Many said they felt they had no choice but to sign the forms because they saw Turkish officials beat up the men who initially refused to sign, HRW reported.

Two migrants detained at a removal center in Adana, southern Turkey, said they were given the choice of signing a form and going back to Syria or being detained for a year.

HRW says Turkey is an unsafe third country for migrants

Turkey has provided temporary protection to some 3.6 million Syrian refugees, but now it appears "Turkey is trying to make northern Syria a refugee dumping ground," said HRW researcher Nadia Hardman.

Hardman said the European Union and its member states should acknowledge that Turkey does not meet its criteria for a safe third country for migrants, and called on the bloc to suspend its funding of migration detention and border controls "until forced deportations cease." The EU has provided billions of euros in funding for migration management and humanitarian aid to Turkey over the years, since it signed a deal in 2016.

Turkey, meanwhile, hosts more refugees than any other country in the world, almost four times as many as the whole EU, according to HRW. But the country's deportations of hundreds of Syrian refugees are now casting doubt on Ankara's migrant policies.

Turkey responds

In May 2022, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said he plans to resettle one million refugees in northern Syria – in areas not controlled by the government.

"Declaring Turkey a 'safe third country' is inconsistent with the scale of deportations of Syrian refugees to northern Syria," Hardman said.

The HRW report notes that on October 21, Dr. Savaş Ünlü, head of the Presidency for Migration Management in Turkey, responded by letter to the Human Rights Watch's letter of October 3 sharing this report's findings.

Ünlü emphasized that Turkey hosts the largest number of refugees in the world and rejected Human Rights Watch's findings in their totality, calling the allegations baseless.

Setting out the services provided by law to people seeking protection in Turkey, Ünlü stressed that Turkey "carries out migration management in accordance with national and international law."