Turkey forcibly returning thousands of Syrian refugees: Amnesty

ANKARA: Turkey has illegally forced thousands of refugees to return to Syria, a report by Amnesty International says. The group says about 100 Syrians have been sent back to their war-torn country every day since mid-January in breach of international law. Amnesty says its report exposes the flaws in a recent deal between the EU and Turkey aimed at stemming the flow of refugees arriving in Greece. However, Turkey has denied sending back any refugees against their will, the BBC reported. The Amnesty report comes just days before Turkey is expected to receive the first migrants returned from Greece under the deal with the EU. On Friday the UN called for safeguards before any migrants were returned. The group says its research in southern Turkey suggested that authorities had been rounding up and expelling groups of about 100 Syrian men, women and children almost daily since the middle of January. Under the “non-refoulement” principle of international humanitarian law, a state is prohibited from deporting individuals to a war zone. Amnesty said one case involved three young children forced back into Syria without their parents, while another saw the forced return of an eight-months’ pregnant woman.