(13 Mar 2023)
SYRIA MIGRANTS BORDER
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
LENGTH: 2:22
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Idlib - 12 March 2023
1. Body bag being closed
2. Various of injured men
3. Injured migrant Mohammed al-Ali on hospital bed
4. Al-Ali saying UPSOUND: "We were eight. We were eight along with the guide."
5. Al-Ali
6. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Mohammed al-Ali, migrant:
“Today, we wanted to cross into Turkey so that we can find work opportunities. On the way, we were caught by the Turkish border patrol. They caught us and they took us to car. They started hitting us in the car. We reached the location, they threw us to the ground and started beating us with wooden sticks until two men were hurt. One person died while the other became unconscious and they took him away. Until now I don’t know where he is.”
7. Various of injured men
8. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Hussein Abdel Majeed, injured migrant:
“After we climbed the fence, we found them on the other side. They caught us, and they hit us with a metal rod for 4-5 hours. They beat us so badly. They took us to the camp and they just beat us with sticks until 10-11 in the morning, when they brought us back.”
9. Various of Abdel Majeed
10. Various of injured man
STORYLINE:
Turkey-bound Syrian migrant Mohammed al-Ali set out to cross the border searching for opportunities, but said he and the others who were with him were stopped and beaten so severely that one man was killed.
They had been searching for a chance to live a life better than the one their war-torn country could offer, but the journey turned into a nightmare.
Instead of getting to Turkey, al-Ali and many of those who attempted the journey are back in Syria at a hospital getting treated for injuries.
He says Turkey's border patrol caught them as they were trying to cross illegally, and beat them.
"They started hitting us in the car. We reached the location, they threw us to the ground and started beating us with wooden sticks until two men were hurt," al-Ali said.
"One person died while the other became unconscious and they took him away," he added.
Refugees fleeing the long conflict in Syria once were welcomed in neighboring Turkey with open arms, sympathy and compassion for fellow Muslims.
But attitudes gradually hardened as the number of newcomers swelled over the past decade.
Turkey houses the world’s largest refugee population, mostly 3.6 million Syrians who fled the decade-long war in their country.
A leading human rights group said in October that hundreds of Syrian men and boys were detained, beaten and forcibly returned to their country by Turkish authorities over a six-month period.
The treatment of migrants living in Turkey under temporary protection is a breach of international law, New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a report.
At the hospital in Idlib, there were several migrants like al-Ali whose bodies were filled with black and blue bruises after they failed to make the journey across.
Hussein Abdel Majeed attempted to cross the night before al-Ali, but was also caught and severely beaten.
"They hit us with a metal rod for 4-5 hours. They beat us so badly," he said.
Over the last few months, violent incidents at the border have been increasing with many coming back from that journey straight to the hospital.
The al-Qaida-linked Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group which is in control of Idlib has released a statement on the violence at the border, calling on the Turkish government to investigate the incidents.
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