Migrants in Turkiye fear being sent back to Syria

Growing warmth in ties between Ankara and Damascus has raised fears among refugees in Turkiye that they will be deported back to Syria.

Syria has said normalization can come only after Turkiye pulls troops out of opposition-held areas of Syria, a condition Ankara has called unacceptable. Nevertheless, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks increasingly of reconciliation and said at the weekend he would invite Syrian leader Bashar Assad “any time” to restore relations severed since 2011.

“There are fears that Erdogan will make a deal with Assad and send the Syrians back,” said Samir Alabdullah of the Harmoon Centre for Contemporary Studies in Istanbul. “There are also those who fear they will be stripped of their Turkish citizenship.”

Turkey hosts more than 3 million Syrian migrants, and resentment is growing.

Ahmad, 19, a Syrian student in the Eyupsultan district of Istanbul, said his family was considering selling their property because of anti-immigrant unrest. “They are scared even though they have Turkish citizenship,” he said.

In the city’s densely populated Sultanbeyli district, where many Syrian refugees live, attackers broke the windows of a Syrian-owned barber shop and chanted anti-immigrant slogans. A Syrian mother said her son, 8, now “wants to stay indoors because he believes people might do us harm.”