Alwaght- Turkey is using live fire to prevent Syrian civilians escaping areas occupied by the notorious ISIS Takfiri terrorist group.
In a statement on Friday, Human Rights Watch, HRW, said, “As civilians flee ISIS fighters, Turkey is responding with live ammunition instead of compassion.”
Gerry Simpson, senior refugee researcher at HRW, added that, “The whole world is talking about fighting ISIS, and yet those most at risk of becoming victims of its horrific abuses are trapped on the wrong side of a concrete wall,” he added.
The UN Refugee Agency has asked the Turkish regime to provide data on possible refugee deaths in shelling on the Syrian border.
The human rights watchdog highlighted that Turkey’s border still remains “firmly shut” a year after the authorities started rejecting all but the most seriously injured Syrians.
“Turkey’s closed border is forcing Syrian men, women, and children to dig ditches and hide to escape the horrors of war,” Simpson said. “Turkey’s attempt at creating a so-called safe zone is a terrible joke for civilians cowering underground and desperate to escape Syria.”
According to international aid workers in Turkey and heads of six of the 10 displaced persons camps east of Azaz near the Turkish border, ISIS advances on Wednesday and Thursday forced out at least half the camps’ 60,000 residents. They have fled to other camps, such as the Bab al-Salameh on the Turkish border and to the nearby town of Azaz. Three of the camps (Ikdah, Harameen and al-Sham) are now deserted. There used to be around 24,000 people sheltering there, according to HRW.
On Thursday, HRW spoke with representatives of six of the 10 camps and seven displaced Syrians, who had been living in camps that had been taken over by ISIS terrorists, or that were close to the fast-changing IS front line. All the residents said they wanted to get to Turkey, but the closed border meant they had no escape.
EU leaders and Turkey have recently agreed a plan, aimed at opening a "safe and legal" route to the EU for Syrian refugees. Under the deal, sealed on March 20, Ankara is supposed to take back all migrants and refugees, including Syrians, who cross the Aegean Sea to enter Greece illegally. In return, the EU takes in thousands of Syrian refugees directly from Turkey, rewarding Ankara with an early visa-free travel regime, advancement in EU membership talks and - last but not least - more money.
