A man dies trying to reach the Turkish territory due to low temperatures, extreme cold, and harsh conditions of this journey
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights documented the death of a man while he was trying to cross to the Turkish territory from Idlib countryside, and in the details obtained by the Syrian Observatory: the man died at the Syrian border with the Iskenderun in the northern countryside of Jisr al-Shughur, as a result of the harsh cold and low temperatures, in addition to the obstacles he experienced in order to reach the Turkish territory like passing through swamps and mud-filled holes, and the Syrian Observatory published on the 10th of February 2019 that death did not leave any way to claim the lives of the Syrians, showing an appetite for the taste of civilian bodies who are looking for a place away of death, where the death did not get away of them on the ground of their country, and the last persecution of Syrians was what the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitored about the loss of about 12 civilians on the Syrian – Turkish border in the recent days while they were trying to reach the Turkish side, reliable sources told the Syrian Observatory that civilians -including displaced people from other Syrian areas- tried to get out and reach the Turkish side via the border areas with Idlib countryside; via smugglers who wanted to exploit the bad weather and fog to prevent their arrest by the Turkish Jandarma, but these operations caused at least 12 people to go missing and 2 of whom were confirmed dead so far, while the fate of the rest of them is still unknown, and other sources confirmed that those who got out towards the Turkish side are afraid to ask for help in case they lost those who got out with them, because they fear being arrested by the Turkish Jandarma who killed hundreds of Syrian civilians in the past days, where the Syrian Observatory documented that the Turkish Jandarma killed 419 civilians at least, since the beginning of the Syrian Revolution, including 75 children under the age of eighteen and 37 citizen women over the age of eighteen, and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights documented the injury of hundreds of others in the continued targeting by the Turkish border guards for the Syrian citizens who escaped from the military operation in their areas towards places in which they can find a safe haven that keeps them away of the death that is following them in their country Syria, in order for their children to have a better life and their fate doesn’t end up to be like the fate of more than 20000 children killed since the start of the Syrian revolution, or the fate of tens of thousands of other children who had permanent disabilities, or the fate of thousands of children who were dragged into the military operation and turned into fighters and bombers.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights published earlier that among all this death and fear, the traffickers of death (human smugglers at the border) exploit the circumstances of civilians fleeing their cities, towns, villages and the tents of displacement, demanding substantial sums of money in order to transfer them to the Turkish side, where the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights received a copy of a video in which smugglers record their “customers” who arrived in the Turkish territory or Iskenderun, to declare that they have arrived safely and that the road used by the smuggler is a safe road and there is no risk in taking it, while in one of the videos; some roads are “permission roads”, where those who arrived to Turkey talked that the smugglers informed them that the road was opened with the permission of Turkish officers working in the Turkish Jandarma; in exchange of money delivered to them in an agreed manner with the smugglers, the Syrian Observatory published on the 26th of August 2018 that The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitored the increase in number of casualties, as a result of the Turkish targeting for more citizens on their journey to seek a safe haven, to reap more lives out of those who try to cross into Turkey.
Also people moved through the Turkish – Syrian border, reported that shooting and killing by the Turkish Jandarma, are being carried out almost daily, where the smugglers sometimes manage to deliver their customers and transport them to the Turkish side, but in many cases, the smuggling processes failed, where in many cases the smugglers and their customers are arrested and they are beaten and insulted by the Turkish border guards, and the sources confirmed that the smugglers are subjected to more violent beating, which reaches to crash their limbs or cause disability, and the torture goes beyond beatings with hands, and reaches to the beating with nightsticks, white weapons and the butts of guns, even it reaches that some smugglers are shot, in order to be prevented from returning to smuggling, and the SOHR documented some cases in which smugglers were subjected to gunfire at their legs and feet which caused disabilities, after being arrested for many time, where one of the smugglers confirmed to the SOHR that he was arrested several times and he denied that he works as a smuggler and that he came to enter Turkey for work, until he was revealed by an officer saw the detained Syrian smuggler by chance, where he quickly shot him at his foot which caused permanent disability for the young man, while these processes of smuggling have not stopped at the attraction to push people to leave, the shock of the rough way, the difficulty of the smuggling process which takes several hours, and the smugglers’ insulting treatment, in addition to the inhumane treatment by the Turkish Jandarma, but they went beyond to assault attempts and assaults against girls by the smugglers during the smuggling, in addition to killing their customers and throwing the bodies in the bushes or in al-Assi River, after seizing their money and possessions, claiming that they were killed by the Turkish border guards, in addition to the killing by the Turkish Jandarma against citizens, the death of hundreds of whom have been documented by the Syrian Observatory by Human Rights since the beginning of the Syrian Revolution, the smuggling also includes the transport of prohibited goods and stuffs like drugs, while the smugglers’ inhuman treatment went beyond to leave those who are not able to complete their way, in the valleys and bushes on the smuggling road to Turkey, where the SOHR monitored the missing of tens of people in these smuggling processes, in addition to the escape of the smuggler in the case that he felt that he is about to be arrested by the Turkish border guards.