A new Amnesty International report, called 'Sent to a War Zone: Turkey’s Illegal Deportations Of Syrian Refugees’, has revealed that Turkey spent the months leading up to its military incursion into northeast Syria forcibly deporting refugees to the war-torn country, in advance of attempting to create a so-called “safe zone” on the Syrian side of the border.

The organization met or spoke with refugees who said Turkish police had beaten or threatened them into signing documents stating they were asking to return to Syria, when in reality Turkey was forcing them back to a war zone and putting their lives in grave danger.

Anna Shea, Researcher on Refugee and Migrant Rights at Amnesty International said: "Turkey’s claim that refugees from Syria are choosing to walk straight back into the conflict is dangerous and dishonest. Rather, our research shows that people are being tricked or forced into returning."

Shea added: "Turkey deserves recognition for hosting more than 3.6 million women, men and children from Syria for over eight years, but it cannot use this generosity as an excuse to flout international and domestic law by deporting people to an active conflict zone."

Without official statistics, estimating the number of forced deportations is difficult. But based on dozens of interviews conducted between July and October 2019 for the report, ‘Sent to a war zone: Turkey’s illegal deportations of Syrian refugees’, Amnesty International estimates that over the past few months the figure is likely in the hundreds. The Turkish authorities claim that a total of 315,000 people have left for Syria on an entirely voluntary basis.

It is illegal to deport people to Syria as it exposes them to a real risk of serious human rights violations.

"It is chilling that Turkey’s deal with Russia this week agrees to the ‘safe and voluntary return’ of refugees to a yet to-be-established ‘safe zone.’ Returns until now have been anything but safe and voluntary – and now millions more refugees from Syria are at risk," said Anna Shea.