AI: Turkish Border Guards Shooting Syrian Refugees Daily

Local Editor

A researcher at Amnesty International told media sources that Turkish guards routinely shoot at Syrian refugees stranded at the border, adding that the number of people being shot has recently spiked.

Researcher Andrew Gardner considered that these cases are far from being isolated, noting that: "There have been many reports of incidents on the border. We collected information on this as early as 2014, when we received many reports of people being shot when they were trying to cross the border irregularly."

"Now, the information we received via Syria doctors is that there are reports of two or three people being shot every day trying to cross the border irregularly," he said.

The researcher also stated that the plight of refugees in Syria has driven many of them into the "hands of smugglers," or forced them to cross the border at night.

According to Gardner, Turkish guards fire shots at refugees based on what they say are "safety measures."

For him, the only way to resolve the problem of the migrant flow was to make legal crossing points for refugees on the border with Turkey, and said Ankara "should not have to hold the responsibility for hosting refugees alone."

To alleviate the issue, the researcher urged EU members to accept bigger migrant quotas and advised Russia to accept more refugees from neighboring countries.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team