Turkey: 1,942 Syrian refugees deported in July

The Bab al-Hawa crossing on the Turkey-Syria border saw 1,942 Syrian refugees deported in July, the Syrian Observer reported, quoting from alSouria.net.

This is the largest number of deportees per month since the beginning of the year. 

Earlier data from the crossing indicate that the number of monthly deportees to Syria is on the rise since the beginning of the year, with 1,139 in January, 1,396 in February, 1,321 in March, and 1,323 in April. The number slightly decreased in May to 1,222, before rising again in June to 1,729.

Turkish authorities recently stepped up security measures in major cities to combat illegal immigration.

Turkey’s Interior Ministry announced that Turkey in 2022 has deported 34,112 migrants and refugees who have entered the country illegally, as  inspections related to the arrest of irregular migrants are continuing at full speed. 

According to a report by al-Arabiya Net, some of those deportations were unlawful and the authorities used “false” documents to support the orders, leading to the dispersal of Syrian families who depended on the work of the deported family members to meet their daily living expenses.

Experts say refugees have been scapegoated in Turkey due to ongoing competition over economic resources, concerns over ethnic or religious balances, and security-related worries.

“The tension has also escalated as a result of misinformation in the media, xenophobic discourses and hate speech by public figures from different political parties that represent large and diverse groups in the Turkish society,” Muge Dalkiran from the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna told Arab News.