Escalating smuggling operations | Civilians sneak from areas administrated by “Salvation and Interim Governments” to regime-controlled areas

Reliable SOHR sources have reported noticeable escalation of smuggling of civilians from areas controlled by the “Salvation Government, Hayyaat Tahrir Al-Sham and opposition factions in Idlib and areas administrated by the “Interim Government” and Turkish-backed factions in Aleppo countryside to regime-controlled areas. These operations are run by offices and smugglers affiliated with the factions, which organise trips almost daily to help civilians sneak into regime-controlled areas.

 

According to SOHR sources, a trip starts after coordination between smugglers or the owners of offices known for such activities on one hand, and the civilians who want to leave for regime-controlled areas. Smugglers, specially those who are in Aleppo city and countryside, where they communicate with their customers via social media or meet with them in headquarters of tour companies which are strewn everywhere in Idlib city and countryside and areas under the control of the “National Army” in north and east Aleppo countryside. The two sides therefore can discuss the time of the trip and its cost.

 

Reliable SOHR sources have confirmed that the cost of such trips to regime-controlled area in the different province is varying. Most of smugglers take 650 USD from each civilian in return for helping them reach from Idlib province to Aleppo province. While the same trip costs people with special needs a sum of money of an estimated 1,000 USD per each person.

 

SOHR sources reported that a civilian living in the southern countryside of Idlib had sent his wife and his two daughters to Hama province with the help of the owner of an office in Sarmada in the northern countryside of Idlib, so that the wife would obtain a “family registry” and travel to Lebanon. The man had paid 450 USD to the office in return for helping his wife and daughters to reach Hama province.

 

Speaking to SOHR, the owner of a tour office in Idlib says, “the cost of delivering one person from Jarabulus city in the northern countryside of Aleppo to Aleppo city reaches 575 USD, while the trip from Idlib province to Aleppo city costs 650 USD per a person.”

 

Clarifying the way of coordination between HTS in Idlib and Turkish-backed factions in Aleppo countryside, the man says, “the routes used for smuggling are secured and the smuggled people face no risks, unless they are not civilians or liable for mandatory conscription. After paying financial dues to the factions dominating crossings and routs used for smuggling, customers are given receipts and delivered to regime-controlled areas.”

 

It is worth noting that those offices advertise their services widely on social media, where they post advertising pictures showing the addresses and phone numbers of those offices, as well as explaining the details of the trips they organise from areas held by HTS and opposition factions in north Syria to regime-controlled areas in Damascus, Aleppo, Homs and Hama provinces.

 

In the same context, smuggling operations are ongoing from regime-controlled areas to north Syria, where officers, soldiers and civilians are helped by smugglers to sneak into areas under HTS and factions in return for large sums of money. Some of those people continue their way to Turkey, then to European and Arab countries, as most of them have fled the dreadful living conditions in regime-controlled areas.