Two weeks ago, Human Rights Watch documented, in detail, attacks by masked men on boats with asylum seekers and migrants in the Aegean Sea. We gathered nine witness accounts of eight separate incidents in which armed men in speed boats wearing black clothes and ski masks intercepted and disabled boats carrying asylum seekers and migrants from Turkey toward the Greek islands. I had hoped that reporting on these incidents would have mobilized Greece, Turkey, and the European Union’s external border force, Frontex, to put a stop to such attacks, to bring the perpetrators to justice, and to protect the asylum seekers and migrants.

I was wrong.

I recently interviewed “Mahmoud” (he was too afraid to give his name), a 44-year-old man from Dara’a, Syria, as he sat with his wife and five young children in the courtyard of the mosque in the Basmane district of Izmir, Turkey. He told me that on December 3, he and his family joined 30 other people on a rubber boat in their attempt to reach the Greek islands. About halfway there, they were blinded by a strong light shining on them from a big boat. The migrant piloting their boat tried to evade the larger boat and a small boat when three masked men came at them at such fast speed that he said he thought the boat they were in would capsize. Mahmoud and other passengers held their babies up so the masked men would take pity on them. But one of the assailants hit the pilot of the boat twice on the head with a truncheon and they disabled the motor by cutting the wires, leaving it to drift. Mahmoud said that some of the passengers tried to communicate in Turkish with the attackers, but that the only language they could understand was the English command to “Stop, stop.”

(İstanbul) -  İnsan Hakları İzleme Örgütü (Human Rights Watch) bugün yaptığı açıklamada, Türkiye'nin güneydoğusunda Temmuz 2015'ten bu yana devam eden güvenlik operasyonları ve çatışmalar sırasında kadın, çocuk ve yaşlılar dahil olmak üzere çok sayıda Kürt sivilin öldürüldüğünü açıkladı. Yerel insan hakları grupları 100'ün  üzerinde sivilin öldürüldüğünü ve çok sayıda da yaralı olduğunu bildiriyor. Son günlerde bölgeye yapılan benzeri görülmemiş bir askeri sevkiyatın ardından bazı şehirlerde sokağa çıkma yasağı yürürlüğe kondu. Bu şehirlerin bazı mahalleleri ise ordunun top atışlarına ve silahlı Kürt gruplarıyla aralarındaki yoğun çatışmalarına sahne oldu. İnsan Hakları İzleme Örgütü sivil ölü sayısının önümüzdeki günlerde hızla arabileceğine ilişkin duyduğu endişeyi dile getirdi.

İnsan Hakları İzleme Örgütü, Eylül ve Kasım aylarında uygulanan üç uzun süreli sokağa çıkma yasağı esnasında asker ve polis güçleri tarafından gerçekleştirilen operasyonları mercek altına aldı ve bu süreçte öldürülen 15 sivilin vakalarını, akrabaları ve tanıklarla yaptığı detaylı görüşmelerle belgeledi. Ayrıca, mermi ve şarapnelle yaralanan 8 sivilin beyanlarını ve gözaltında ciddi kötü muamele görmüş üç vakayla ilgili ifadeleri de kayıt altına aldı. Anlatılanlara göre devletin uyguladığı sokağa çıkma yasakları esnasında yaralıların tedaviye erişimi engellendi,  mahallelerin tamamında halkın su ve elektriği kesildi ve yiyecek almaları mümkün olmadı. Pek çok insan çatışmalardan kaçmak için evlerini terk etti.

İnsan Hakları İzleme Örgütü kıdemli Türkiye araştırmacısı Emma Sinclair-Webb “Türkiye hükümeti güvenlik güçlerini dizginlemeli. Gücün orantısız ve kötüye kullanılmasını derhal sona erdirmeli ve operasyonlar sırasında gerçekleşen ölüm ve yaralanmaları soruşturmalıdır” dedi. Sinclair-Webb, “Bölgedeki Kürt nüfusa yapılanların göz ardı veya örtbas edilmesi, yalnızca güneydoğudaki yaygın bir kanının doğrulanmasına yarayacaktır: Mesele Kürt silahlı gruplara yönelik polis ve askeri operasyonlara geldiğinde, hiçbir sınır – kanun yok” diye devam etti.

İnsan Hakları İzleme Örgütü'nün görüştüğü tanıklar, güvenlik güçlerinin sokakta gördükleri veya evinden çıkan herkesin üzerine, silahlı olup olmadığına ve kişinin herhangi bir tehdit oluşturup oluşturmadığı ya da ölümcül güç kullanımı gerekip gerekmediğine bakmaksızın  defalarca ateş açtıklarını anlattılar.

Hükümet güçleriyle silahlı muhalif savaşçılar arasındaki çatışmalar, Türkiye hükümetiyle hapisteki PKK lideri Abdullah Öcalan arasındaki barış sürecinin sona ermesinden bu yana sürüyor.  Güneydoğu'daki bütün şehir ve kasabalarda PKK ile bağlantılı silahlı Yurtsever Devrimci Gençlik Hareketi'ne (YDG-H) karşı yoğun güvenlik operasyonları yürütülüyor. Gençlik hareketinin destekçileri ise mahallelere girişi engellemek için hendekler kazıp barikatlar kuruyorlar.

İnsan Hakları İzleme Örgütü'nün belgelediği, Şırnak ilinin Cizre ilçesinde Eylül ayındaki sokağa çıkma yasağı sırasındaki sekiz ölüm ve Kasım ayındaki yasaklar sırasında Silvan'daki dört ve Nusaybin'deki üç ölüm, bu dönemde meydana gelen sivil ölüm ve yaralanmalara ilişkin yalnızca ufak bir örnek teşkil ediyor. Yerel gruplarca toplanan kanıtlar ölü ve yaralı sayılarının çok daha yüksek olduğunu gösterse de, tam sayının belirlenmesi, her vakada ölümlerin sorumlularının bulunması ve öldürülenler arasında çatışmalarda yer alanların olup olmadığının ortaya çıkarılabilmesi için kapsamlı bir soruşturma yürütülmesi gerekiyor. Ulusal ve uluslararası insan hakları hukukunun hükümete bu konuda verdiği net yükümlülüklere rağmen, yetkili makamlar İnsan Hakları İzleme Örgütü’nün belgelediği 15 ölümle ilgili olarak yapılması gereken soruşturmaları tamamlamış değiller.

Tanıklar İnsan Hakları İzleme Örgütü’ne, yaralılar için ambulans çağırmaya çalışıldığında acil servisin kendilerine ambulansın gelmesinin mümkün olmadığının söylediğini ve yaralıları kendi arabalarıyla hastaneye götürmeye kalkıştıklarında da polisin kendilerini durdurduğunu anlattılar.

16 Ağustos'tan bu yana güneydoğu illerindeki yetkili makamlar, tüm il ve ilçelerde veya belli mahallelerde birçok kez uzun süreli sokağa çıkma yasağı ilan ettiler. İki haftaya kadar sürebilen yasaklar sırasında yetkililer, insanların seyahat özgürlüğünü ağır biçimde kısıtladılar ve bölgeye gözlemcilerin veya medyanın girmesini de engellediler.

Sokağa çıkma yasakları sırasında Özel Harekat Polis timleri ve diğer güvenlik güçleri silahlı Kürt gençlik hareketine yönelik terörle mücadele operasyonları yürüttüler ve operasyonlar esnasında silahlı grubun kurduğu barikatlara karşı zırhlı araçlar ve bazen de tanklar kullandılar ve ağır top atışı yaptılar. Kürt silahlı grubun destekçileri ise mahallelere girişi engellemek için hendekler kazdılar, sık sık bu hendeklere patlayıcılar yerleştirdiler ve barikatlar kurdular.

Türkiye yaşam, bedensel bütünlük ve güvenlik haklarını koruma altına alan hem Avrupa İnsan Hakları Sözleşmesi’ne (AİHS) hem Uluslararası Medeni ve Siyasi Haklar Sözleşmesi’ne (UMSHS) taraf bir ülkedir. Bu anlaşmalardan doğan yükümlülüklerin parçası olarak, yaralanan herkese vakit geçirmeksizin tıbbi tedavi sağlanmalıdır. Türkiye makamlarının geçmişte de güneydoğudaki öldürmelerle, özellikle de kanun dışı öldürmelerden devlet görevlilerinin sorumlu olduğu iddia edilen vakalarla ilgili etkin soruşturma yürütmedikleri biliniyor. Bu nedenle Avrupa İnsan Hakları Mahkemesi Türkiye'nin yaşam hakkını ihlal ettiğine dair bir dizi karar çıkarmıştır.

Türkiye makamlarının halkı silahlı grupların şiddetinden koruma sorumluluğu ve yaşam hakkına yönelik tehditlere karşı makul güç kullanma yetkisi olsa da, bu yetkiyi kullanırken sokağa çıkma yasağı uygulamak dahil her türlü polis operasyonunda, uygulamadan etkilenen bölgelerde yaşayanların haklarına saygı gösterilmesini, tedbirlerin karşı karşıya olunan tehditle orantılı olmasını ve insanların tıbbi tedavi dahil olmak üzere temel hizmetlere erişebilmesini sağlama yükümlülüğü de bulunuyor.

Avrupa Konseyi İnsan Hakları Komiseri Nils Muiznieks 18 Kasım tarihli açıklamasındaşöyle dedi:

Türkiye devletinin terörle mücadele hakkı ve yükümlülüğünün olduğunu yinelemekle birlikte, bu mücadelede başvurulan yöntemlerin başta Avrupa İnsan Hakları Sözleşmesi olmak üzere, uluslararası standartlarda belirtilen insan haklarına saygılı olması gerektiğini vurgulamak gerekir. Tüm bir mahalle veya ilçede, ikinci bir emre kadar süren açık uçlu, aralıksız sokağa çıkma yasaklarının olması, büyük bir nüfusun en temel insan haklarının ciddi biçimde kısıtlanması anlamına gelmektedir. Bu yöntemin Ağustos ayından bu yana Türkiye'nin güneydoğusunda sıkça ve yaygın biçimde kullanılması, demokratik bir toplumda gözetilmesi gereken orantılılık ve gereklilik kriterlerinin karşılanmadığı izlenimi vermektedir.

Her vakada, güvenlik güçlerinin sivilleri hukuka aykırı biçimde mi öldürdüğünün; sivillerin çapraz ateş arasında bırakılıp bırakılmadığının; silahlı savaşçılar tarafından mı yoksa silahlı çatışmalar sırasında uçan şarapnel parçaları yüzünden mi öldüğünün belirlenmesi için bütünlüklü bir soruşturma yürütülmesi gerekiyor. Soruşturma sırasında mevcut tüm tanıkların beyanlarının alınması, olay yeri incelemesi, detaylı otopsi ve diğer adli incelemelerin yapılması ve zırhlı araçlarda bulunan kameraların çektiği montajlanmamış ham görüntülerinin ve polis birimleri veya siviller tarafından çekilmiş diğer her türlü video görüntüsünün derlenmesi gerekir.

İnsan Hakları İzleme Örgütü hükümetin güvenlik güçlerine, hiç kimsenin tıbbi yardıma erişmesini veya tıbbi personelin ve ambulansların yaralılara müdahale etmesini engellememeleri gerektiğini net biçimde ortaya koyması ve bunu yapanları sorumlu tutması gerektiğini söyledi.

İnsan Hakları İzleme Örgütü ayrıca, Kürdistan İşçi Partisi'yle bağlantılı silahlı Kürt grupların devlet yetkililerinin mahallelere girmesini engellemek için patlayıcı yerleştirilmiş hendekler kazmaktan ve barikat kurmaktan vazgeçmeleri gerektiğini de kaydetti. Bu uygulamanın halkı olumsuz etkileyerek insanların tıbbi bakıma erişim haklarını tehdit ettiğini ve diğer acil hizmetlerin ulaşmasını engellediğini söyledi.

Sinclair-Webb “Sokağa çıkma yasakları, polis operasyonları ve silahlı çatışmalar güneydoğunun birçok il ve ilçesindeki pek çok kişi için hayatı dayanılmaz kılıyor. Bu yaşananlar Kürt barış sürecinin çökmesinin yarattığı insani bedelin gerçek boyutlarını ortaya koyuyor” dedi.

Sivil Ölümleri

Mazlum Der ve İnsan Hakları Derneği gibi insan hakları grupları ile Diyarbakır Barosu son aylarda güneydoğuda çok sayıda kadın, erkek ve çocuğun öldürüldüğünü bildirdi. Ölen ve yaralananlar arasında küçük çocuklar, ergenlik çağındaki oğlan çocukları, yetişkin kadın ve erkekler bulunuyor. Öldürülen ergen ve genç erkeklerden bazıları silahlı ve polise  karşı yürütülen silahlı çatışmalara aktif olarak katılmış olabilir. Kimileri ise silahsız ve çatışma esnasında bölgede bulunduğu için hedef olmuş olabilir.

İnsan Hakları İzleme Örgütü, Cizre, Silvan ve Nusaybin'de, sokağa çıkma yasakları esnasında polis ve diğer güvenlik güçlerinin mahalleleri kuşattığı sırada vurularak öldürülen 15 kişinin akrabaları ve arkadaşlarıyla görüştü.

Bazı tanıklar sevdiklerini öldüren ateşin güvenlik güçleri tarafından açıldığını söyledi; ama kapsamlı bir soruşturma yapılmadığı sürece öldürmelerin nasıl meydana geldiğine ve cezai sorumluluğun kime ait olduğuna ilişkin kesin bir sonuca varmak imkansız.

Kesin rakamları tespit etmek zor olsa da, ölen polis memurlarının, PKK'nin gençlik kanadı üyesi olduğu iddia edilenlerin ve PKK mensuplarının sayısı da yüzleri aştı.

İnsan Hakları İzleme Örgütü'nün öldürülen sivillerden bazılarının akrabalarıyla yaptığı görüşmeler ve savcılarla kurduğu temaslar, sivil ölümlerle ilgili uluslararası hukukun gerektirdiği etkin soruşturmaların henüz gerçekleştirilmediğini gösteriyor. Türkiye makamlarının, yaptıkları resmi açıklamalarda öldürülenler arasında çok sayıda sivilin de olduğunu neredeyse hiç kabul etmemesi, ölümlerle ilgili vakit geçirmeden kapsamlı bir soruşturma yürütme niyetlerine dair kaygılandırıcı bir mesaj veriyor.

Cizre'den bir savcı, Eylül ayında İnsan Hakları İzleme Örgütü’ne, 4-12 Eylül tarihleri arasında uygulanan sokağa çıkma yasağı sırasında gerçekleşen ölümlerle ilgili soruşturmaların devam ettiği konusunda güvence verdi.

Öte yandan Cizre'nin bağlı olduğu Şırnak valisi 17 Eylül'de basına yaptığı açıklamada, uygulama esnasında çok sayıda patlayıcının tahrip edildiğini ifade ederek, “ayrıca 7 terörist ölü ele geçirilmiş, 17 bölücü terör örgütü mensubu gözaltına alınmıştır” dedi ve “Terör örgütünün kaybının 40-42 civarında olduğu değerlendirilmektedir” diye ekledi.

Diyarbakır Barosu ve başka grupların, 16 kişinin kurşun ve şarapnel yaraları yüzünden, ayrıca 5 kişinin de sokağa çıkma yasağı sırasında tıbbi tedaviye erişemediği için öldüklerini saptamasına rağmen Vali, sıradan sivillerin ölümleriyle ilgili herhangi bir açıklama yapmadı. İnsan Hakları İzleme Örgütü ise silahla yaralanma sonucu ölenlerden 8 kişiyi belgeledi.

Silvan'da sokağa çıkma yasağının kaldırılmasının ardından, Diyarbakır valisi 2 polis memuru ve bir jandarma ile “2 vatandaş” ve “10 bölücü terör örgütü elemanının” öldürüldüğünü açıkladı. İnsan Hakları İzleme Örgütü, burada da dördü sivil olduğu anlaşılan beş ölümü belgeledi. Benzer şekilde, Nusaybin Kaymakamlığı’ndan yapılan resmi açıklamada“üç vatandaşın şarapnel parçalarından yaralanarak öldükleri”  belirtildi. İnsan Hakları İzleme Örgütü, kurşun yaralarından dolayı ölen üç sivili belgeledi ve benzer başka vakalar olduğuna dair de bilgi edindi. Ne Silvan ne Nusaybin kaymakamları İnsan Hakları İzleme Örgütü'nün görüşme talebine cevap verdiler.

Cizre ve Silvan'dan Tanıklıklar

İnsan Hakları İzleme Örgütü, Ekim ve Kasım'da 47 kişiyle, 4-12 Eylül tarihleri arasında Cizre'de, 3-14 Kasım arasında Silvan'da ve 13-26 Kasım arasında Nusaybin'de yürürlüğe sokulan sokağa çıkma yasakları hakkında detaylı görüşmeler yaptı. Görüşmelerin esas konusu, olası yaşam hakkı ihlalleri ve yaralıların tıbbi bakıma erişimindeki engeller olsa da, görüşülenlerin birçoğu hareket özgürlüğünün kısıtlanması, su ve gıdaya erişime müdahale edilmesi ve uzun süreli elektrik kesintilerinden de söz ettiler.

Cizre'deki sokağa çıkma yasağı, 4-12 Eylül

İnsan Hakları İzleme Örgütü, Diyarbakır Barosu’nun ateşli silah yaralanması sonucu öldüğünü bildirdiği 16 kişiden sekizinin akrabaları ve komşularıyla görüştü. Baro, beş kişinin daha sokağa çıkma yasağı yüzünden tıbbi bakım alamadıkları için öldüklerini belirtti.

İnsan Hakları İzleme Örgütü ayrıca silahla yaralanmış bir bebeğin babasıyla, bacağı diz altından kesilmek zorunda kalan bir kişinin de dahil olduğu benzer şekilde yaralanmış dört yetişkinle, ateşli silah yaraları sonucu bacağı kesildikten sonra yoğun bakımda tedavi görmekte olan bir erkeğin akrabalarıyla ve şarapnel ve cam kırıkları yüzünden birer gözleri görme yetisini kaybetmiş iki kişiyle daha görüştü.

Cizre doğumlu bir öğretmen olan Bahaeddin Yağarcık (38) sokağa çıkma yasağının hayatlarına etkisini şöyle anlattı:

4 Eylül günü akşam saat 7.00'de sokağa çıkma yasağı konacağı ilan edildi ve yasak 8.00'de başladı. Akabinde polislerin konuşlandığı belediyeye ait kültür merkezi civarından Botaş Caddesi’ne doğru ateş açıldı. Botaş Caddesi'ne bakan evimiz makineli tüfekten atılan kurşun yağmuru altında kaldı. Sokağa çıkma yasağının üçüncü gününde evimizi terk ederek arka sokakta oturan erkek kardeşimin evine gittik. Orası sakindi.

Bahaeddin Yağarcık, “Ama sonra, top ateşi başladı” diye devam etti.

Karım, çocuklarım, annem ve diğer akrabalarla birlikte toplam 18 kişiydik ve hepimiz dördüncü günün akşamı saat 6.30'dan ertesi sabah saat 6.00’a kadar tek bir odada kaldık. Annemin kalp rahatsızlığı vardı ve karımın da korkudan ağzını bıçak açmıyordu. Herkesi sakinleştirmeye çalıştım. Yiyecek yoktu ve tuvalete gitmek için bile odadan çıkamıyorduk. Bütün gece o odada öylece oturduk. Camlar kırıldı, bina sallandı. Herkes travma geçiriyordu. Karım yaşadıklarını üstünden atamadı ve hâlâ korkudan titriyor.

Sabah 6.00'da üçüncü kez ev değiştirip, teyzemin oturduğu eve geçtik. Orada beş altı aile vardı; yaklaşık 50-60 kişinin olduğu evde oturmaya bile yer yoktu. Hemen yandaki ablamın eviyle ortak olan duvarda bir delik açmışlardı; o delikten ablamın evine geçtik. Oradaki iki odada kaldık. Hiç suyumuz kalmamıştı ve çoktandır kullanılmayan eski bir kuyuyu kullandık. Dipteki çamurlu suyu çıkarmak için ip uzattık. Su içilecek gibi olmadığından kumaş kullanarak süzmeye çalıştık.

Yedinci gün ablam su bulmak için çıktı; neredeyse vuruluyordu. Başkasına ait boş bir evin penceresinden içeri girip oradaki suyu içtik. O gün sular geldi ama hâlâ ara ara elektrik kesiliyordu ve sıcaklık 40 dereceydi. O sıcakta zor nefes alıyorduk. Dışarıya bakmaya çalıştığımda bana ateş ettiler. Akrabalarımız için çok korkuyorduk. Zırhlı araçlardan askeri marşlar çalınıyor ve hoparlörlerden “Nur Mahallesi, Apo'nun piçleri, Ermeni piçleri, sizi cehenneme göndereceğiz” diye anonslar yapılıyordu. Polis duvarlara “Ağlayacaksanız oynamayın” gibi sloganlar yazmıştı.

38 yaşında bir kamyon şoförü olan Ahmet Edin kendisi kuzey Irak'tayken, 8 Eylül saat gece 10.00 civarında 35 yaşındaki karısı Maşallah Edin'in ve gelini 17 yaşındaki Zeynep Taşkın'ın, yakındaki kendi evlerine gitmek üzere kardeşinin Cudi Mahallesi’ndeki evinden çıkarlarken, evin hemen dışında vurularak öldürüldüklerini söyledi. Vurulduğunda Zeynep Taşkın'ın kucağında 6 aylık bebeği Berxwedan da vardı. Bebek bu saldırıdan yaralı kurtuldu.

İki kadının vurulduğu sırada evde olan Ahmet Edin'in kuzeni Ferhan Dayan (27) kadınların bedenlerini ve bebeği alma çabalarının, keskin nişancı polislerin dışarıda gördükleri herkese sürekli ateş açması yüzünden engellendiğini söyledi. Dayan, saldırı esnasında kadınların yanında olan babası Ekrem Dayan'ın (56) da ayağından vurulduğunu, ancak  kapıdan içeri doğru düştüğü için onu içeri çekebildiklerini anlattı.

Bir süre sonra yine akrabaları olan 50 yaşındaki Ayşe Kolin'in de vurulan iki kadının yanına gitmeye çalışırken kalçasından isabet aldığını söyledi. Aile üyeleri Ekrem Dayan ve Ayşe Kolin'in ameliyat olduklarını ama hâlâ tedavi gördüklerini belirttiler.

Ateş açıldığı sırada orada olan İdris Elinç “Maşallah Edin ve Zeynep Taşkın'ın cenazelerini bir buçuk, iki saat sonra alabildik. Üçünün de öldüğünü zannettik. Berxwedan bebeği yaralı ama canlı olarak iki kadının bedenleri arasında bulduğumuzda çok şaşırdık” dedi.

Ateş açmalarla ilgili görüşülenlerin tamamı vurulan beş kişinin vuruldukları yerin Cudi Mahallesi’ndeki dik ve açık bir yamaçta olduğunu ve buranın Cizre'nin diğer mahallelerinden kolaylıkla görülebildiğini kaydederek ilçenin diğer bölgelerindeki yüksek binalara konuşlanmış keskin nişancıların burayı hedef aldığını düşündüklerini söylediler.

Ev kadını olan Emine Çağırga, 13 yaşındaki kızı Cemile'nin Cudi Mahallesi’ndeki evlerinin hemen dışında vurularak öldürüldüğünü söyledi ve avlu kapısındaki kurşun izlerini gösterdi. Burası Edin ailesinin evine oldukça yakın ve Cizre'nin diğer bölgelerinden uzak mesafeden bile kolayca görülebilecek, açık bir yamaçta. Emine Çağırga ve İnsan Hakları İzleme Örgütü'nün görüştüğü diğer akrabalar, ilçenin diğer bölgelerindeki yüksek binalarda konuşlanan keskin nişancıların bölgeyi hedef almış olabileceğine dair inandırıcı bir iddiada bulundu.

[6 Eylül] Pazar akşamıydı, silah sesi duyduk ve Cemile'nin düştüğünü gördük. Ona “Kalk hadi, kalk” diye seslendim. Bana “anne, anne!” dedi ve öldü. Cenazesini evin içine aldık. Sabaha kadar ellerini tuttum; tüm vücuduna buz koyduk. Ertesi sabah cenazesini yıkadık; ben ellerine kına sürdüm, kefenledik ve derin dondurucunun içine yerleştirdik. İkinci günün sonunda, akşam Şırnak milletvekilleri geldi ve Cemile'nin cenazesini İdil Sokağı’ndaki camiye götürdüler. Otopsisi Şırnak'ta yapıldıktan sonra defnettik.

Fevzi Süne (59) karısı Meryem Süne'nin (53) Nur Mahallesi’ndeki evlerinin girişinde vurularak öldürüldüğünü söyledi:

8 Eylül'de ben içeride oturuyordum ve akşam 9.00'da karım Meryem abdest almak için dışarı çıktı. Avlunun dış kapısını kapatırken yere yığıldı. İçeri taşıdık. Önce saçmayla vurulduğunu sandık ama değildi. İsabet eden bir mermi yüzünden iç kanama geçiriyordu. Hayattaydı ama telefon edip ambulans istediğimizde gönderemeyeceklerini söylediler. Bizim nüfus kağıtlarımız TC, biz PKK değiliz, dedik. Hastaneye yetiştirebilseydik yaşayabileceğini düşünüyorum. Saat 12.00 gibi öldü. Cesedi bütün gece yanımızdaydı. Ertesi sabah cenazeyi bir soğuk hava deposuna koyduk ve öğleden sonra 4.00'e kadar orada kaldı. Ancak o saatten sonra hastane morguna götürebildik.

1990'larda köyümüzü yaktıkları için terk ettiğimizde, belki çocuklarımızı okutmamıza izin verirler, demiştim ama buna da izin vermediler. 1992'de yanımıza döşeklerimizden başka bir şey alamadık. Köyümüzü, evimizi, her şeyimizi kaybettik. Belki çocuklarımıza göz kulak olabiliriz, dedik ama ona da izin vermediler. Çocuklarımız travmayla büyüdü.

Oğlu Salih ise şöyle dedi:

Annemin cenazesini götürdüğümüz hastanede ifade verdim. Polis bana annemin nerede, nasıl, ne zaman vurulduğu gibi sorular sordu. El yazısıyla yazdığı raporu imzaladım; aynı ifadeyi hastanede yan odadaki savcıya da verdim. Sonra, annemin cenazesi otopsi için Şırnak'a götürüldü. Cenaze bize 13 Eylül'de teslim edildi ve biz de aynı gün defnettik. Daha sonra avukatımızla birlikte savcıya gidip ifade verdik. Otopsi raporunda annemin kurşun yarası yüzünden öldüğü ve merminin vücudundan çıkarıldığı yazıyordu. Hiçbir resmi kurum temsilcisi ziyaretimize gelmedi.

Gurbet Çağdavul 18 yaşındaki oğlu Sait Çağdavul'un Nur Mahallesi’nde vurulduğunu ve vuranların polis olduğuna inandığını söyledi:

Sait bir akrabamızın dükkânında çalışıyordu. Sokağa çıkma yasağının ikinci gecesi evimizden dışarı kaçtık, çünkü zırhlı araçlar sokağımızın içine ateş ediyordu. Oğlum evin kapısında göğsünün sol tarafından ve boğazından vuruldu. Bir komşumuz acil servisi aradı ama buraya ambulans gelemiyordu. Polis ambulansın mahalleye girmesine izin vermedi. Sait'in bedenini camiye götürmeyi başardık. Üç gün orada kaldı. Oğlumu su olmadığı için yıkayamadık. Sonunda, aralarında milletvekillerinin de bulunduğu 15 kişi hep birlikte cenazeyi İdil Caddesi’ndeki ambulansa taşıdı.

Hiçbir resmi kurum bizi aramadı. Nasıl bir işlem yapılacağıyla ilgili bize bir şey söylenmediği gibi, Sait'in öldürülmesiyle ilgili bir soruşturma olup olmayacağı hakkında bilgi de verilmedi. Sadece silah ve top atışı sesleri vardı. Devlet bizi rahat bırakmalı, biz barış istiyorduk. Biz ne çocuklarımız ölsün istiyoruz ne asker ne de başkası. Çocuklarımız devletten korkuyor ve hiçbir yere gidemiyor.

Cizre'de devlet adalet falan tanımıyor. Canlı kamera görüntüsü olmadığı takdirde polisin yargılanma ihtimali yok. Sebebi bizim Kürt olmamız. Birçok kişi hastaneye gitmeye korkuyor çünkü giderlerse tutuklanacaklarından endişe ediyorlar.

34 yaşındaki Rahmet Erdin Agar, 60 yaşındaki babası Eşref Erdin'in 9 Eylül günü Nur Mahallesi’ndeki evlerinin damında vurularak öldürüldüğünü anlattı:

Üç gün sadece silah sesi duyduk. Sular kesik olduğu için babam su tankını kontrol etmeye çatıya çıkmıştı. Elektrikler kesikti. Biz aşağıdaydık. Gitti ama uzunca bir süre geri gelmeyince üvey annem ne yaptığını görmek için yukarı çıktı. Orada babamın bir kan gölünün içinde namaz kılar gibi yüzüstü yattığını görmüş. Sırtından vurulmuş ama ölmemişti. 112'yi arayıp ambulans istedik ama bize, “gelemeyiz, gelirsek bizi öldürürler” dediler. 155'i aradık ve babamın arabasının plakasını verdik ki gelenin biz olduğumuzu anlasınlar.

Babamı arabaya koyup avludan dışarı çıktık. Köşeyi döner dönmez polis üstümüze ateş açtı. Polis olduğunu biliyoruz çünkü ateş onların mevzilendiği yerden açıldı. Araba üstü kurşun deliği dolu, 33 [Mersin] plakalı beyaz bir jip. Geri dönmek zorunda kaldık, yoksa kurşunlara hedef olacaktık. Babam öldü. 11 Eylül'de milletvekili Faysal Sarıyıldız'ın yardımıyla cenazesini hastanenin morguna götürebildik.

Metin Çağlı babası Salih Çağlı'nın Nur Mahallesi’ndeki evlerinin dışında vurulduğunu söyledi:

Babam 6 Eylül gecesi saat yaklaşık 9.30 – 10.00 civarında evimizin altındaki dükkânın kapısına gitti ve hemen ardından bağırdığını duyduk. Elektrikler kesikti. Sol bacağından vurulunca yere yığılmıştı ve yoğun kanaması vardı. Dolaplardan birinin kapağını babamı taşımak için sedye yaptık. Sokağa çıkarsak üzerimize ateş açılacağı için komşularımızın evinden geçmemiz lazımdı. Bunun için evimizin duvarını delerek yandaki eve geçtik. Komşularımız bina aralarındaki duvarlarda önceden delikler açmıştı. Babamı ambulansa taşımak için yaklaşık yedi evden geçtik.

Gece yaklaşık 1.00 civarında İdil Caddesi’ndeki Dalmışlar benzin istasyonuna vardık ve ambulansa ulaştık. Çok gecikiyorduk ve Cizre Hastanesi’ne giderken ambulans sürekli polisler tarafından durdurulup arandı. Oradan Mardin Hastanesi’ne gönderildik. Mardin yolunda polis üç kez ambulansı kontrol etti. Ambulansın içine bakıp “Ölmüş bu¨ diyorlardı. Yolda babamın kalbi iki kere durdu ama tekrar çalıştırdılar. Sabah 6.00'da babamı Mardin Hastanesi’nde ameliyata aldılar ve bacağı sol dizinin üstünden kesildi. Sol kolu ve çenesi şarapnel parçalarıyla dolu. Hâlâ hastanede yatıyor.

Şirin Sarak (48) kocası Suphi Sarak'ın (51), vurulan komşuları Bahattin Sevinik'e yardım etmeye çalışırken Botaş Caddesi’nde vurularak öldürüldüğünü söyledi:

Salı akşamı 9.00-9.30 civarıydı. Sokağa çıkma yasağı bir önceki Cuma başlamıştı. Elektrikler kesikti ve sokaktan korkutucu silah sesleri geliyordu. Komşumuz Bahattin Sevinik'in çığlık atarak “İmdat” diye haykırdığını duyduk. Suphi dayanamadı ve Bahattin'in yanına gidebilmek için arka kapıdan fırladı.

Peşinden gidip durdurmaya çalıştım ama o durmadı; sonrasında silah sesini duydum. Küçük oğlum balkondan bakınca iki zırhlı polis aracının bize doğru geldiğini ve polisin Suphi'nin vücudunu yerde sürükleyerek zırhlı araçlardan birine koyduğunu gördü. Suphi'nin cesedini teşhis etmek üzere Şırnak'taki morga ancak günler sonra, yasağın kalkmasını takiben gidebildik. Morgdan arayıp oraya gitmemizi istediler.

Suphi öldürüldüğünde bazı TV kanallarında polisin bir PKK militanını ele geçirdiği söylendi. Üzerinde PKK üniforması var dediler. Oysa Suphi'nin üzerinde bu bölgenin geleneksel giysisi olan leşkeri (geniş Botan şalvarı) vardı. Sırtından defalarca kurşunlanmıştı.

Bir başıma kaldım. Yedi oğlum ve üç kızım var. Oğullarımın ikisi Karadeniz'de fındık topladığı ve geçimimizi olan mevsimlik iş bitmeden geri gelemeyecekleri için babalarının cenazelerine bile gelemediler.

28 yaşında bir muhasebeci olan Abdülhakim Anakın, Suphi Sarak'la birlikte Sevinik'i hastaneye götürmeye çalışırken Nur Mahallesi’ndeki Botaş Caddesi’nde vurulduğunu söyledi:

Komşumuz Bahattin Sevinik namaz kıldıktan sonra evde başından vuruldu. Kardeşi Hüsamettin elinde telefonun ışığını açmış halde dışarı fırlayarak Türkçe ve Kürtçe haykırmaya başladı: “Abimi öldürdüler.” Sokakta 10-15 tane, belki de daha fazla zırhlı araç vardı. Öldüğünü bilmiyorduk. Hüsamettin, abisini hastaneye götürmek istediğini ama araba kullanmayı bilmediğini söyledi. Ben götürmeyi teklif ettim. Araba avludaydı; Bahattin'i arabaya koyduk. Arabayı bir ya da iki metre kadar sürdüm.

Arabayı avludan çıkarırken komşumuz Suphi Sarak gözüktü ve arabanın penceresinden içeri bakıp ne olduğunu sordu. Üstünde leşkeri vardı. Sokak Özel Harekat polisine ait zırhlı araçlarla doluydu. Üstümüze ateş açtılar, Suphi'yi vurdular, ben de arabanın direksiyonunu tuttuğum sol elimden vuruldum. Suphi Sarak'a 10 kurşun isabet etmiş. Hastaneden verilen raporda, sol gözümde metal parçacıkları olduğu yazılmış ama bu metalin ne olduğu belirtilmemiş. Evden çıkamadığımız için altı gün hastaneye gidemedim, evde oturdum. Tanıdığımız bir hemşire beni muayene etti ve doktora gitmeye ikna etti. İki ameliyat oldum: elimden ve üç “metal parçacığının” çıkarılması için gözümden. Sol gözüm görmüyor, korkarım artık göremeyeceğim.

Devletin ne olduğunu biliyoruz. Cizre'de yaşam güvencemiz yok. Nereden gelirse gelsin, kör kurşunlardan korkuyoruz. Beş farklı polis ekibi gelip ifademi aldı. Savcı henüz ifademe başvurmadı ama ben şikâyette bulundum.

Silvan’ın üç mahallesinde sokağa çıkma yasağı, 3-16 Kasım

İnsan Hakları İzleme Örgütü Silvan'da uygulanan sokağa çıkma yasağıyla ilgili, aralarında yasak sırasında vurularak öldürülen beş kişinin akrabaları ve ailelerinin de bulunduğu 16 Silvanlıyla görüştü. Söz konusu beş kişiden üçüyle ilgili anlatımlar burada okunabilir. 

Tekel Mahallesi Muhtarı Süleyman Ayrıç (54) sokağa çıkma yasağı sırasındaki durumu şöyle anlattı:

Çatışmalar vardı ama canımızı korumak içeride saklandığımızdan ne olduğunu tam olarak göremiyorduk. Birçok insan kaçıp diğer mahallelere, Diyarbakır'a, başka yerlere gitti. Mahallede kimse kalmadı – sadece yaşlı bir dulla hayvanlarına bakmak için kalan bir adam vardı. Ben evimizi korumak için tek başıma kaldım. Ailem gitti.

12 gün boyunca ne elektrik ne de su vardı. 3 Kasım sabah saat 8.00'de DEDAŞ bu mahallenin elektriğini kesti. Ne olduğunu öğrenmek için aradığımda yangın tehlikesine karşı kestiklerini söylediler. Başka bir mahalledeki trafolardan biri hasar görmüş ve orada elektrik kesilmiş. Su da, gençler hendek kazarken bir boruyu patlattıkları için kesilmiş. İçme suyumuzu hendekteki patlak borudan alıyorduk. Gençlere defalarca hendek kazmanın yasadışı olduğunu söyledim ama beni dinlemediler.

56 yaşındaki Ramazan Duruk da şunları anlattı:

İki taraftan da baskı altındayız. 18 Eylül'deki çatışmalar sırasında 93 yaşındaki yaşlı annem Hanife Duruk kalp krizi geçirip öldü. Cenazesini camiye götürmeyi başardık ama morga ancak milletvekillerinin yardımıyla götürebildik. Burası bir savaş alanı olmamalı. Burada halk var. Bunu her iki tarafa da devamlı söylüyoruz. Kasım'daki sokağa çıkma yasağının son iki gününde polis timleri bütün evleri aradı. İçeri girip her şeyi kırıp döktüler. Polis buna “temizlik operasyonu” diyordu ve operasyon sırasında kapıları ve insanların eşyalarını parçaladılar.

Devlet burada sadece muhtarla konuşuyor, bizi asla muhatap almıyor. Tüm bu süreçte bizimle hiçbir iletişim kurmadı.

İnşaat işçisi olan Erdal Özkan (35) şöyle dedi:

Beş çocuğum var; beş gün boyunca burada, içerde tıkılı kaldık. Sonunda çıkıp gidebildik ama yasağın dokuzuncu gününde geri geldiğimde evimi hasar görmüş halde buldum. Elimde hasarı gösteren fotoğraflar var ama daha kimse incelemeye gelmedi. Klima kurşunlarla delik deşik olmuş ve bozulmuştu, dolaplarda kurşun delikleri vardı. Ben işçiyim – duvar ustasıyım ama şimdilerde iş yok. Bence bu dönem, Silvan'da Hizbullah cinayetlerinin olduğu 1990'lardan daha şiddetli. O günlerde savaş ve ölüm vardı ama belli insanları hedef alıyorlardı. Bu dönemde devletin kurşunları herkesi vuruyor.

Bir kadın (ismi İnsan Hakları İzleme Örgütü'nde saklı):

Sokağa çıkma yasağının son gününde askerler sokaklarda ellerinde silahlarıyla tek sıra halinde yürüyüp güç gösterisi yaptılar. Kalabalık askerleri yuhaladı ve insanlar “Defolun!” diye bağırdı. Hoparlörden bir anons yapıldı: “Aferin çocuklar, Silvan teröristlerden temizlendi.” Halka şu mesajı veriyorlardı: “Sizi ezip geçtik.” Askerlerden bazılarının yüzlerindeki ifadeyi görmeniz lazımdı – zorunlu askerliklerini yapan genç çocuklardı ve bazılar o kadar etkilenmişti ki ilçenin içinden yürüyerek geçmek zorunda kalmayı kaldıramamışlardı. Bu olaylardan sonra kendimi bu ülkenin vatandaşı gibi hissetmiyorum.

Silvan'daki Dicle Kıraathanesi’nin işletmecisi Kutbettin Tekin sokağa çıkma yasağı sırasında kahveye açılan ateş sonucunda müşterilerden 45 yaşındaki taksi şoförü Mehmet Gündüz'ün öldüğünü, çok sayıda kişinin de yaralandığını anlattı. İnsan Hakları İzleme Örgütü kahveye gittiğinde camdaki iki kurşun deliği hâlâ görülebiliyordu. İnsan Hakları İzleme Örgütü'nün izlediği güvenlik kamerası görüntülerinde ateşin açıldığı sırada kahvenin yanından bir zırhlı araç geçtiği görülüyor. Ateşin bu araçtan mı yoksa başka bir yerden mi açıldığının tespit edilmesi için bir soruşturma yapılmalıdır:

Saat sabah 11.00 sularında kahveye ateş açıldı. Mehmet Gündüz vurularak öldü. O akşam kahvede kimsenin olmadığı sırada polis kapıyı kırıp içeri girdi ve arama yaptı. Kimse bizimle konuşmaya gelmedi; ne savcı, ne bir devlet yetkilisi. Bunun nasıl olduğunu öğrenmek istiyoruz, iki çocuğu babasız kalan Mehmet Gündüz'ü kim vurdu,  insanların şüphelendiği gibi kahveye sokaktan geçen zırhlı araçtan mı ateş açıldı, bilmek istiyoruz. Silvan'da hayatı durdurdular.

Tekel Mahallesi’nde yaşayan, üç küçük çocuk annesi Sevgi Gezici (22), sokağa çıkma yasağı sırasında kocası Engin Gezici (24) ile kocasının halası İsmet Gezici'nin vurularak öldürüldüklerini anlattı:

Yasağın üçüncü gününde [6 Kasım] evde benden, kocam Engin'den ve üç çocuğumuzdan başka kimse yoktu. Evimizin hemen dışında bir hendek vardı; bir çatışma sırasında bomba ve silah sesleri duyduk. Ne elektrik, ne su ve yiyecek vardı. Engin silah seslerinin bir kaç dakikalığına durduğu sırada dışarı çıktı. Çocuklar çok korktuğu için evi terk edebilir miyiz diye bakmak için dışarıya çıkmıştı. Saat sabah 11.00'di ve gidebileceğimiz bir yol var mı ve evden çıkıp gidebilir miyiz, diye anlamak için gitti. Geri dönerken eve sadece 10 metre kala vuruldu. Ellerinde hiçbir şey yoktu, silahsızdı.

Önce silah seslerini, ardından insan seslerini duydum. Pencereden dışarı bakınca kocamı vurulmuş halde yerde yatarken gördüm. Yanında iki arkadaşı vardı, onu içeri taşıdılar. Birkaç dakika sonra halası kendi evinden çıkıp bizim eve doğru koşmaya başladı. Bizim evin kapısında onu da vurdular. Bize bağırdı, içeri yaralı halde aldık. Kocam ölmüştü. Halası carşı yönünden gelen kurşunla kalçasından vurulmuştu ama bizimle konuşabiliyordu. Bir kapıyı sedye gibi kullanıp, duvarda bir delik açarak onu bir komşunun evine geçirdik. Onu böyle taşıyarak saat 1.00 gibi Bahçelievler'de oturan bir akrabasının evine götürdük. Hastaneye yetiştirilmeye çalışıldığı Diyarbakır'da öldü.

Saat gece 10.00-11.00 gibi Engin'in amcaoğulları Yılmaz Gezici, S.G. ve O.G. Engin'in cenazesini arabalarına koyabildiler ama polis arabayı durdurup onları da gözaltına aldı. Terörle Mücadele Şubesi’nin bahçesine götürüp saatlerce yüzüstü yerde yatırmışlar ve dövmüşler. Polis onlara “Ona amcaoğlu demeyin, terörist deyin” diye bağırmış.

Dava açılması ve suçluların adalet önüne çıkarılması için ne gerekiyorsa yapacağım. Savcıya ifade vereceğim. Kocam yazları Muş'ta çoban olarak çalışır, sürü güderdi. Ailesinden 10 kişiye o bakıyordu. Başka hiç kimse çalışmıyor. Bizim elimizden tek umudumuzu aldılar.

Devlet ifademize başvurmak ya da başka bir sebeple ne benimle ne de ailemle irtibata geçti. Kendi evimiz yok, kiradayız. Elimizde hiç gelirimiz yokken bizim eve 130, kayınpederlerimin yaşadığı eve 150 lira kirayı nasıl ödeyeceğiz? Ben çalışırsam çocuklara kim bakacak? Kayınpederim çalışmıyor, kayınvalidemse hasta.

İnsan Hakları İzleme Örgütü daha sonra 36 yaşındaki inşaat işçisi Yılmaz Gezici ile telefonda görüştü. Polis tarafından kardeşleri S.G. (21) ve O.G.’yle (19) birlikte “ölü bir teröristin cesediyle” kaçmakla suçlanarak gözaltına alındıktan sonra, Terörle Mücadele Silvan Şubesi’nde saatlerce çok ağır kötü muamele gördüklerini anlattı. Yılmaz Gezici savcılığa şikayette bulunacağını söyledi.

• English

(Istanbul)— Kurdish civilians, including women, children and elderly residents, have been killed during security operations and armed clashes since July 2015 in southeastern Turkey. Local human rights groups have recorded well over 100 civilian deaths and multiple injuries. After unprecedented military deployments to the region in recent days, several cities are under curfew and some of their neighborhoods the scenes of shelling by the military and heavy clashes with armed Kurdish groups. The civilian death toll is likely to rise steeply in the coming days.

Human Rights Watch focused on police and military operations during three extended curfews in September and November, documenting 15 of the killings of civilians in detail through interviews with relatives and witnesses as well as the accounts of eight civilians injured with gunshot wounds and shrapnel, and three cases of serious ill-treatment in detention. Wounded people have been denied access to medical treatment. The populations of entire neighborhoods have had their water and electricity cut during state-imposed curfews and have been left without access to food. Many have fled their homes to escape fighting.

“The Turkish government should rein in its security forces, immediately stop the abusive and disproportionate use of force, and investigate the deaths and injuries caused by its operations,” said Emma Sinclair-Webb, senior Turkey researcher at Human Rights Watch. “To ignore or cover up what’s happening to the region’s Kurdish population would only confirm the widely held belief in the southeast that when it comes to police and military operations against Kurdish armed groups, there are no limits – there is no law.” 

Witnesses told Human Rights Watch that security forces repeatedly opened fire on anyone on the streets or who left their homes, failing to distinguish between people who were armed and those who weren’t and making no assessment of the threat an individual posed or the necessity of using lethal force.

Clashes have taken place between government forces and armed opposition fighters since the breakdown of the Turkish government’s peace process with Abdullah Öcalan, the imprisoned leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). In towns throughout the southeast massive security operations are under way against an armed movement, the Patriotic Revolutionary Youth Movement (YDG-H), associated with the PKK. The youth movement’s supporters have dug trenches and erected barricades to seal off neighborhoods.

The eight deaths in the city of Cizre, in Şırnak province, during a curfew in September and four deaths in the city of Silvan and three in Nusaybin during November curfews, documented by Human Rights Watch are only a sample of the civilian deaths and injuries that occurred during this period. While it is clear from evidence collected by local groups that the death and injury toll is much higher, a full investigation is needed to determine precise numbers, to determine who is responsible for the deaths in each case, and to determine whether any of the larger number killed were participating in the fighting. In the 15 deaths documented by Human Rights Watch, the authorities have failed to complete investigations despite a clear obligation to do so under Turkish domestic and international human rights law.

Witnesses in Cizre and Silvan told Human Rights Watch that when people tried to get an ambulance for injured people, the emergency services told them it was not possible for an ambulance to come and that police blocked them when they tried to take wounded victims to hospitals by car.

Since August 16, provincial authorities in the southeast have announced repeated prolonged curfews in whole cities and towns or in particular neighborhoods. During the curfews, lasting up to two weeks, officials have severely restricted people’s freedom of movement and prevented access to the area by observers or media.

During the curfews, Special Operations Police teams and other security forces have conducted counter-terrorism operations against the armed Kurdish youth movement, using armored vehicles and sometimes tanks and heavy artillery against their barricades. The supporters of the Kurdish armed group have dug trenches, often planted with explosives and erected barricades to seal off neighborhoods. 

Turkey is party to both the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which protect the rights to life, bodily integrity, and security. As part of those obligations, medical treatment must be provided promptly to anyone who is injured. The Turkish authorities have a history of failing to carry out effective investigations into killings in the southeast, in particular in cases where state agents were alleged to have been responsible for unlawful killings, resulting in a series of rulings by European Court of Human Rights that Turkey violated the right to life.

While Turkish authorities have a duty to protect the population from violence by armed groups, and may use reasonable force to deal with threats to the right to life, they must also ensure that their policing operations, including the imposition of any curfews, respect the rights of those living in affected areas, are proportionate to the threat faced and that people are able to access basic services including medical treatment.

In a November 18, 2015 statement, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Nils Muiznieks said:

While I reiterate the right and obligation of the Turkish state to fight terrorism, the methods employed in this fight have to respect the human rights guarantees enshrined in international standards, in particular the European Convention on Human Rights. Imposing open-ended, round-the-clock curfews in entire neighbourhoods or towns until further notice represents a massive restriction of some of the most fundamental human rights of a huge population. Their frequent and widespread use in South-Eastern Turkey since August does not appear to satisfy the criteria of proportionality and necessity in a democratic society.

A full investigation is needed to determine in each case whether members of the security forces unlawfully killed civilians or whether civilians were killed in crossfire, by armed fighters or by flying shrapnel during armed clashes. The investigation should include   interviews with all available witnesses, an on-site investigation, detailed autopsies and other forensics, and the collection of all unedited video footage from cameras on armored vehicles and other video shot by police units or civilians,.

The government should immediately make absolutely clear that the security forces should not prevent anyone from reaching medical assistance or impede medics and ambulances from responding to the wounded, and hold anyone who does accountable, Human Rights Watch said.

Armed Kurdish groups associated with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party should stop digging trenches planted with explosives and erecting barricades to prevent state authorities from entering neighborhoods, Human Rights Watch said. The practice has had an adverse impact on the population, threatening their right to access medical care and impeding the delivery of other emergency services.

“Curfews, police operations, and armed clashes have made life for many people in southeastern towns and cities unbearable, and deadly dangerous,” Sinclair-Webb said. “It demonstrates the very real human cost of the breakdown of the Kurdish peace process.”

Civilian Deaths

Human rights groups including Mazlum Der and the Human Rights Association, and the Diyarbakir Bar Association, have reported the killings of scores of men, women and children in the southeast in recent months.  Among the dead and wounded are young children, teenage boys, adult men and women. Some teenagers and young men who were killed may have been armed and actively participating in the armed clashes against the police, and others may have been unarmed but in the vicinity.

Human Rights Watch interviewed relatives and friends of 15 people in Cizre, Silvan and Nusaybin who had been shot dead during curfews, while police and other security forces laid siege to neighborhoods.

Some witnesses said that the security forces were responsible for the shooting that killed their loved ones, but in the absence of a comprehensive investigation it is not possible to be conclusive about the full circumstances of all of the killings, and who bears criminal responsibility.

The death toll of police officers, alleged members of the PKK youth wing, and PKK members has also run into the hundreds, although precise numbers are difficult to estimate.

Human Rights Watch interviews with the relatives of some of the civilians killed and contact with prosecutors indicate that there have yet to be effective investigations into the civilian deaths as required under international law. Turkish authorities’ official statements barely acknowledge that many unarmed citizens are among the dead which sends a worrying message about the likelihood that they intend to ensure full and prompt investigations into the deaths.

A public prosecutor from Cizre assured Human Rights Watch in September that investigations were ongoing into the deaths during the curfew from September 4 to 12.

But the provincial governor of Şırnak, where Cizre is located, told the  media on September 17 that along with the destruction of large amounts of explosives, “the bodies of 7 terrorists were recovered, 17 members of the separatist terrorist organization were detained” and that “losses to the terrorist organization were estimated at around 40-42.”

The governor made no mention of the deaths of ordinary citizens although Diyarbakır Bar Association and other groups identified 16 civilians who died of gunshot wounds and shrapnel injuries and another 5 who died because they could not reach medical treatment during the curfew. Human Rights Watch documented 8 of the deaths from gunshot wounds.

When the curfew in Silvan was lifted the governor of Diyarbakır, in which Silvan is located, announced that two police officers and a gendarme, “2 citizens” and “10 members of the separatist terrorist organization had been killed.” Human Rights Watch documented five deaths, four of whom appear to have been civilians. Similarly, in Nusaybin the deputy governor’s official statement referred to the “death of three citizens” from “shrapnel wounds.”  Human Rights Watch documented three deaths of civilians from gunshot wounds and heard of other cases.  Neither the Silvan deputy governor nor the Nusaybin deputy governor responded to Human Rights Watch requests for meetings.

Accounts from Cizre and Silvan

Human Rights Watch conducted detailed interviews with 47 people in October and November about the September 4-12 curfew in Cizre, the November 3-14 curfew in Silvan, and the November 13-26 in Nusaybin. While the primary focus was on potential violations of the right to life and obstacles to medical treatment for injured people, many of those interviewed also described restrictions on movement, interference with access to water and food, and prolonged power cuts.

Cizre curfew, September 4-12

Human Rights Watch interviewed relatives and neighbors of 8 of a provisional total of 16 people whom the Diyarbakır Bar Association reported to have died of gunshot wounds. The Bar Association reported that another five people died because they could not get medical care during the curfew.

Human Rights Watch also spoke to a father whose baby had been injured by gunshots; four other adults similarly wounded, one of whose leg had to be amputated from the knee down; relatives of a man who was in intensive care after the amputation of his leg as a result of gunshot wounds; and two people who had each lost vision in an eye as a result of shrapnel or splintered glass.

Bahaeddin Yağarcık (38), a Cizre-born teacher, described the impact of the curfew:

On September 4 there was an announcement at 7 p.m. saying there would be a curfew, and at 8 p.m. it was imposed and shooting on Botaş Street started immediately from  around the municipality cultural centre where the police were positioned. Our house looks onto Botaş Street and got sprayed with machine gun fire. On the third day of the curfew we left the house and went to my younger brother’s house on the street behind ours, which was quiet.

But then shells were fired, he said.

With my wife, children, mother and other relatives we were in all 18 people and were in one room from 6:30 p.m. on the fourth night to 6 a.m. the following morning. My mother was ill with a heart condition, my wife was struck silent with fear. I tried to calm everyone down. There was no food, we couldn’t leave the room to go to the toilet. We just stayed in that one room all night. The windows shattered and the building shook. Everyone was traumatized. My wife hasn’t got over it and still shakes with fear.

At 6 a.m. we left for a third house where my maternal aunt lives. There were five or six families there, about 50 or 60 people, and there was no place even to sit. They had made a hole in an adjoining wall to my older sister’s house next door, so that we were able to go through to it. There we stayed in two rooms. There was no water by then and we used an old unsused  well and lowered a rope down to get the muddy water at the bottom. But it was not drinkable so we tried using cloth to filter it.

On the seventh day, my sister went to try to get water and she was nearly shot. We went to another empty house through the window and drank their water. That day the water was restored but there was sometimes still no electricity and it was 40 degrees. We could hardly breathe in that heat. I was shot at when I tried to look out. We were so afraid for our relatives. There were military marches being played from armored vehicles and announcements over loudspeakers like “Nur neighborhood, Apo’s bastards [referring to Abdullah Öcalan, the imprisoned PKK leader  ], Armenian bastards, we will send you to hell.” On the walls the police had written slogans like “Don’t play if you are going to cry.”

A truck driver, Ahmet Edin, 38, said that while he was away in northern Iraq, his wife, Maşallah Edin. 35, and his son’s wife, Zeynep Taşkın, 17, were shot dead right outside his brother’s home in the Cudi neighborhood at around 10 p.m. on September 8 as they were leaving to go back to their own house nearby. Zeynep Taşkin was carrying her 6-month-old baby, Berxwedan, who was wounded but survived.

Ferhan Dayan, 27, Ahmet Edin’s cousin, who was in the house when the women were shot, said that efforts to recover the women’s bodies and the baby were impeded by repeated firing by police snipers at anyone who ventured outside. He said his father, Ekrem Dayan,56, had been with the women and had been shot in the foot at the door and had fallen back inside, so the others  could pull him to safety.

 He said that after an interval another relative, Ayşe Kolin, 50, had attempted to reach the two women but was shot in the hip. Both Ekrem Dayan and Ayşe Kolin had been operated on and were still under medical treatment, family members said.

İdris Elinç, present at the time of the shootings, said: “We were able to recover the bodies of Maşallah Edin and Zeynep Taşkın an hour and a half or two hours later. We thought all three were dead and were amazed to find baby Berxwedan alive but injured between the two women’s bodies.”

Those interviewed about the shootings all emphasized that the place where the five people were shot is in the Cudi neighbourhood on a steep exposed slope and highly visible from other neighbourhoods in Cizre, and that they believed snipers positioned on high buildings in another part of the town could have targeted the location.

Emine Çağırga, a housewife, said that her 13-year-old daughter, Cemile, had been shot dead in the street just outside their house in the Cudi neighbourhood and showed the bullet marks in the door: of the yard. The location is fairly close to the Edin family’s home and is on an exposed hillside clearly visible from a great distance from other parts of Cizre. Emine Çağırga and other relatives Human Rights Watch talked to made the credible suggestion that snipers positioned on high buildings in another part of the town could have targeted the location.

It was Sunday evening [September 6] and we heard shooting and saw that Cemile had fallen down. I said “Get up, get up.” She called “Mother, mother!” and died. We got her body into the house and I held her hands till morning and put ice on her body. Then we washed her body the following morning and I put henna on her hands and we wrapped her in her shroud and put her body in the freezer. At the end of the second day in the evening the Şırnak parliamentarians came and took Cemile’s body to İdil Street to the mosque there. Her autopsy was carried out in Şırnak and then we buried her.

Fevzi Süne, 59, said that his wife Meryem Süne. 53, was shot dead at the entrance to their home in the Nur neighbourhood:

On September 8, I was sitting inside and at 9 p.m. My wife, Meryem, went outside to do her abdest [ritual ablutions before prayer]. As she was closing the outer door to the yard she collapsed. We carried her in. First we thought it was just pellets [from a hunting rifle] but it wasn’t. She had internal bleeding from a bullet. She was alive but we phoned for an ambulance and they told us they couldn’t send one. We said we have Republic of Turkish IDs, that we’re not the PKK.   I believe she would have lived had we been able to get her to hospital. She died at around 12. We kept her body with us all night and the next morning put the body in a cold storage place till 4 p.m.in the afternoon the next day when we managed to get her body to the hospital morgue. 

When they burned our village in the 1990s and we left, we said, “Perhaps they will let us educate our children,” but they didn’t permit that. In 1992 we couldn’t take anything but our mattresses with us. We lost our village, our homes, everything. We said, “Perhaps we’ll be able to look after our children,” but they didn’t permit that either. Our children have grown up traumatized.

His son Salih, said:

I gave a statement at the hospital where we took my mother’s body. The police asked me for the details of where she was shot, when, how and so on. The police wrote a hand-written record, which I signed and I made the same statement to the prosecutor who was in the next room in the hospital. My mother’s body was then sent to Şırnak for the autopsy. We were given the body back on September 13 and we buried my mother in the cemetery that day. We later also gave a statement to the prosecutor with our lawyer. The autopsy report states that my mother was killed by a bullet wound and the bullet was found in her body. No one from any official body has visited us.

Gurbet Çağdavul said that her son, Sait Çağdavul. aged 18, was shot dead in the Nur neighbourhood by forces she believes were police:

Sait worked in a shop for a relative of ours. On the second night of the curfew we ran from our house because armored vehicles were shooting into our street. My son was shot on his left side in the chest and in the throat right at the door of the house. A neighbor managed to phone the emergency services but no ambulance could get here. The police didn’t allow it into the neighborhood. We managed to get Sait’s body to the mosque and it stayed there for three days and we couldn’t wash it because there was no water. Eventually 15 people, including members of parliament, together carried the body to İdil Street to an ambulance.

We haven’t heard from any official body. We haven’t been told anything about the procedures and whether there will be an investigation into Sait’s killing. There was just the sounds of bullets and shelling. The state should leave us alone, we wanted peace. We didn’t want our children to die, neither the soldiers nor the others. Our children are afraid of the state and can’t go anywhere.

In Cizre the state doesn’t recognize justice. Unless there is actual camera footage there is no possibility of the police going on trial. This is because we are Kurdish. Many people are afraid to go to hospital because they are afraid they will be arrested there.

Rahmet Erdin Agar, 34, said that her father, Eşref Erdin, 60, was shot dead on September 9 on the roof of his home in Nur Neighborhood:

For three days we just heard gunfire.  My father went up the roof to see about the water tank because the water supply had been cut. There was no electricity. We were downstairs. He was gone for some time and didn’t come down. My stepmother went up to see what he was doing and discovered him face down in a pool of blood as if he were praying. He had been shot in the back but wasn’t dead. We called an ambulance on 112. We cannot come, they told us or we will be killed. We called emergency services on 155 and gave the license plate number of my father’s car so that they would know it was us coming.

We put the body in the car and drove out of the yard and as we turned the corner the police shot directly at us. We know it was the police because the firing came from where they were positioned. The car is a white jeep full of bullet holes and has a 33 number plate [a Mersin city number plate]. We had to reverse or we would have been shot. My father died. On September 11 with the help of a member of parliament, Faysal Sarıyıldız, we managed to carry his body to the hospital morgue. 

Metin Cağlı said that his father, Salih Cağlı, was shot outside his home in the Nur neighborhood:

My father went to the door of the shop at about 9:30 or 10 p.m. at night on September 6 and we heard his shouts. There was no electricity. He had collapsed after being shot in the left leg and arm and was bleeding heavily. We took a door off the cupboard and used it as a stretcher to carry him on. We couldn’t get to the street where we would have been shot again and had to go through our neighbors’ homes by knocking a hole in our home to reach the next house. Our neighbors had already knocked holes in the walls between buildings and we passed through about seven houses to get my father to an ambulance.

We reached the Dalmışlar gas station on İdil Street by about 1 a.m. and got an ambulance. There were long delays and the ambulance was continually stopped and checked by the police on the way to the Cizre hospital, then we were sent to Mardin hospital and police checked the ambulance three times on the road to Mardin. They would look into the ambulance and say “He’s dead.”  My father’s heart stopped twice on the way and he was resuscitated.  At 6 a.m. my father was operated on in Mardin and had his leg amputated from above the left knee. His left arm and chin is full of shrapnel pieces and he is still in hospital.

Şirin Sarak, 48, said her husband, Suphi Sarak, aged 51, was shot dead in Botaş Street while trying to help his neighbor Bahattin Sevinik, who had also been shot:

It was 9 or 9:30 p.m. on a Tuesday evening. The curfew had started the previous Friday. The electricity was cut and there were frightening sounds of shooting from outside in the street. We heard screaming from our neighbor Bahattin Sevinik and him shouting “Help!” Suphi couldn’t stand it and rushed out of the back door to try to reach Bahattin.

I followed him and tried to stop him going but he went ahead and then I heard shooting. My younger son looked out from the balcony and saw two police armored vehicles drive up and police drag Suphi’s body along the ground in the street and place it in an armored vehicle. It was only after the curfew was finished days later that we were able to go to the morgue in Şırnak to identify Suphi’s body. We had a call from the morgue asking us to come.

When Suphi was shot dead some TV stations stated that the police had discovered a PKK militant and said he was dressed in PKK uniform. Suphi was dressed in the traditional clothes of this region, leşkeri [the wide-legged Botan shalvar]. He was shot in the back many times.

I am alone. I have seven sons and three daughters. Two of my sons were not even able to come back to their father’s funeral because they are harvesting hazelnuts in the Black Sea region and couldn’t afford to come back until the seasonal work which we depend on is over.

 Abdulhakim Anakin, 28, an accountant, said he was shot in Botaş Street, Nur neighbourhood, as he and Suphi Sarak tried to drive Sevinik to hospital:

Our neighbor Bahattin Sevinik was shot in the head in his home after praying. His brother Hüsamettin ran out and shouted and waved a phone with the light on, shouting in Kurdish and Turkish: “They killed my brother.” In the street there were 10 to 15 armored vehicles, maybe more. We didn’t know he was dead. Hüsamettin said he didn’t know how to drive a car to take him to hospital. I offered to take him to hospital. The car was in the yard and we put Bahattin in the car. I drove the car out by a meter or two.

As I was driving out Suphi Sarak, our neighbor appeared and looked through the window of the car and asked what had happened. He was dressed in leşkeri [the wide-legged shalwar outfit of the Botan region]. The street was full of Special Operations police armored vehicles and they opened fire on us, shot him, and shot me in my left hand, which was on the steering wheel of the car. He got hit by 10 bullets. I have a medical report stating that “metal fragments” entered my left eye, though it doesn’t specify what they are exactly.  I stayed at home for six days and couldn’t get to hospital because we couldn’t leave the house. Someone we knew who was a nurse saw me and persuaded me to go. I had two operations on the hand and on the eye to remove the three “metal fragments”. I cannot see from my left eye and fear I have lost my sight.

We know what the state’s like. We have no security of life in Cizre. We are afraid of the blind bullets wherever they come from. Five different groups of police came and interviewed me. I haven’t been interviewed by a prosecutor yet, but I have filed a complaint.

Silvan curfew in three neighborhoods, November 3-16

Human Rights Watch spoke to 16 people in Silvan about the impact of the curfew there, including relatives and neighbors of five people who were shot dead during the  curfew, three of which are included here.

Süleyman Ayrıç, 54, the elected head (muhtar) of the Tekel neighbourhood, described the situation during the curfew:

There were clashes but we could not see what happened exactly as we had to shelter inside to protect our lives. Most people escaped and went to other neighborhoods, to Diyarbakır, to other places. There was no one left in the neighborhood – just an old widow and a man who stayed here to look after his animals. I stayed here alone to protect our home. My family left.

There was no electricity and water for 12 days. On November 3 at 8 a.m. DEDAŞ [the electricity board] cut the electricity in this neighborhood and when I called them they said it was because of a fire risk. In another neighborhood one of the transformers was damaged and the electric got cut there. The reason the water was cut was because the pipe burst when the youths dug a trench. We had to get drinking water from that broken pipe in the trench. I told the youths that digging trenches was illegal countless times, but they ignored me. 

Ramazan Duruk, 56, said:

We were oppressed by both sides. When there was a clash back on September 18, my old mother, Hanife Duruk, 93,  had a heart attack and died. We managed to get her body to the mosque and only with the help of the parliamentarians could we get her body to the morgue. This should not be a war zone. The population lives here. We keep saying this to both sides. On the last two days of the November curfew, all the houses were searched by police teams and they came in and broke up everything.  The police called it a clean-up operation and in the process they smashed in doors and people’s belongings.

The state here talks only to the elected headman (muhtar) and has absolutely no communication with us. There has been no communication with us through this whole period.

Erdal Özkan, 35, a construction worker, said:

I have five children and we were here for five days stuck in our home. We managed to get out finally and I came back on the ninth day of the curfew to find my house destroyed. I have photos of the damage but no one has come to look yet. The air conditioner was pitted with bullets and destroyed. There were bullet holes in cupboards. I am a worker – I build walls but there is no work now. I think this period is more violent than the 90s when there were the killings in Silvan by Hizbullah. In those days there was war and death but they targeted certain people. In this period the state’s bullets hit everyone.

Woman (name withheld but known to Human Rights Watch):

On the last day of the curfew, the soldiers paraded in a line through the streets holding guns as a show of strength. The crowd booed them and people shouted “Get out!” An announcement was made over a loudspeaker: “Well done, guys, Silvan has been cleaned of its terrorists.” The message to the population was “We have crushed you and continued on.” You should have seen some of the soldiers’ expressions – they were young men doing military service and some were deeply affected and unable to stand having to parade through the town.  After these events I don’t feel like a citizen of this country.”

Kudbettin Tekin, the manager of the Dicle Kıraathanesi (café) in Silvan, said the café was shot at during the curfew, killing a customer, Mehmet Gündüz, 45, a taxi driver, and injuring several others. Two bullet holes through the window were still visible when Human Rights Watch visited the café. CCTV footage seen by Human Rights Watch shows that an armored vehicle passed by the café at the time the shots were fired and an investigation should determine whether the gunfire came from that vehicle or from another source.

At about 11 a.m. our café was shot at. Mehmet Gündüz was shot dead. That evening when there was no one in the café, the police broke down the door and searched the place. No one has come to see us, no prosecutor, no state authority. We want to know how this happened, who killed Mehmet Gündüz whose two children are left without a father, and whether the café was shot at from a passing armored vehicle as people suspect. Life in Silvan has been brought to a standstill. 

Sevgi Gezici, 22, a mother of three young children who lives in the Tekel neighborhood, said that her husband, Engin Gezici, 24, and his aunt İsmet Gezici, were shot dead during the curfew:

On the third day of the curfew [November 6], no one was at home except me, my husband, Engin, and our three children. There was a trench right outside our home and we heard the sound of bombs and guns during a clash. There was no electricity, water or food, and Engin went out when the shooting stopped for a few minutes. He went out to see if we could leave our house because the children were so afraid. It was 11 a.m. and he went to see if there was a way of leaving or not and whether we could go. As he was returning he was shot just 10 meters from the house. He had nothing in his hands and wasn’t armed.

I heard the sound of shooting and heard voices and I looked out of the window and saw my husband on the ground shot. Two friends were beside him and they brought him in. Just a few minutes later his aunt İsmet Gezici ran to our house from her home and she was shot at our door. She shouted and we got her into the house wounded. My husband was dead. His aunt was shot in the hip from the direction of the town center but could speak to us and we carried her on a door we used as a stretcher and made a hole in the wall to get into a neighbor’s house. We managed that way to carry her and at around 1 p.m. got her to a relative’s home in Bahçelievler. She was taken to hospital in Diyarbakir and died there.

At around 10 or 11 p.m. Engin’s cousins Yılmaz Gezici, S.G. and O.G., managed to collect Engin’s body in their car but were stopped by the police and detained. They were taken to the garden of the Anti-Terror Branch and made to lie face down on the ground for hours and were beaten. The police shouted at them “Don’t call him cousin, call him terrorist.” 

I will do whatever is needed to make sure there is a trial and the perpetrators are brought to justice. I will give a statement to the prosecutor. My husband worked in the summer in Muş as a shepherd, herding flocks. He provided for 10 people in his family. No one else works. They took away our only hope. 

The state hasn’t contacted me or my family for a statement or anything else. We have no home of our own and pay rent. How are we going to manage to pay the rent of 130 TL for our house and 150TL for my father-in-law’s house when we have no income. If I work who will look after the children? My father-in-law has no work and mother-in-law is sick.

Human Rights Watch later interviewed Yılmaz Gezici, 36, a construction worker, by telephone. He said  that he and his younger brothers S.G., 21, and O.G.,19 were subjected to hours of serious ill-treatment, beating and death threats at the Silvan Anti-terror Branch, after the police detained them in their car and accused them of absconding with a “dead terrorist’s body.” Yılmaz Gezici said he is pursuing a complaint with the prosecutor. 

• Türkçe

SEPTEMBER 2014. Syrian Kurdish refugees look out from the back of a truck as they enter Turkey from the town of Kobane 
(Ayn al-Arab), Syria, and surrounding villages. © 2014 Michael Christopher Brown/Magnum

Alt Text

On Monday, Turkey announced what could be a huge step forward for Syrian refugee children’s access to education – one that European leaders should strongly support. Volkan Bozkir, Turkey’s minister for European affairs, said that his country planned to start “giving Syrians in Turkey work permits.”

The promise was made in conjunction with Europe’s pledge to give Turkey three billion Euros and other perks in exchange for Turkey’s promise to reduce the flow of refugees to European shores.

The European Commission vice-president, Frans Timmermans, has grumbled that Europe was “far from being satisfied” with Turkey’s efforts so far, and asked Turkey to identify education “projects we can finance immediately so Syrian children can go to school.”

Syrian parents are desperate for their children to have a future. The UN refugee agency has identified lack of access to education as one of the “push factors” driving refugees’ travel to Europe. But of the 708,000 school-age Syrian children living in Turkey, only 212,000 were enrolled in formal education in 2014-2015.

Europe should be applauded for funding refugee children’s access to education, even if the motive is migration control. But research shows that what’s needed to get Syrian kids into school is for their parents to have the chance to support themselves.

Syrians forced to work illegally can’t earn a decent living and often need their children as breadwinners. Refugees’ low-paid, informal work helps drive Syrian child labor in Ankara, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO). As Human Rights Watch documented, child labor is a key barrier to education for Syrian children in Turkey.

Mohammed, a 9-year-old in Izmir, Turkey, is a case in point. In his school in Syria, Mohammed said, “I was one of the best in my class, and I really liked learning how to read.” Now he works 11-hour days in a tailor shop with his father, who cannot support his family on his income, a fraction of his Turkish counterparts’ wages.

Employers in Turkey often pay Syrian refugees below-minimum wage, pressure them to work long hours in unsafe settings, and subject them to unreasonable pay deductions. Since they are working under the radar, they aren’t in a position to complain.

Turkey has pledged to provide work permits to Syrians before. An October 2014 regulation stated that the Council of Ministers was preparing to do so, and regional newsmedia reported that the Labor and Interior ministries were developing relevant legislation. But politicians backtracked, worried that constituents’ jobs might be threatened. Last August, during the run-up to Turkish elections, the Labor Ministry announced that no work permits would be granted. Europe should help ensure that this time, Turkey follows through.

Turkey has taken some steps to boost refugee children’s access to education, like accrediting independent schools that teach a modified Syrian curriculum in Arabic. Indeed, Jordan and Lebanon – where the same vicious cycle of child labor and poverty is playing out -- should follow Turkey’s lead, especially by de-linking refugees’ ability to enroll in school from requirements for hard-to-get official residency permits.

Allowing adults to work won’t lift every barrier to Syrian children’s education, such as the lack of Turkish language classes and catch-up programs for refugee children who have missed years of school, and bullying by Turkish students. For these problems, European funding could also help.

But without protecting refugees’ right to work, it’s hard to imagine that simply funding charitable education projects will suffice. The average amount of time that refugees spend outside their home countries is 17 years. Leaving refugee kids to depend on notoriously fickle donor support for access to school is a recipe for failure.

ILO research shows that it makes good economic sense for host countries to protect refugees’ right to work – and that if they don’t, citizens and refugees alike will suffer. But that will be a tall political order in Turkey – with 10 percent unemployment – much less in Jordan and Lebanon, which are hosting even more Syrians as a proportion of their overall populations.

That’s why Europe needs to focus not just on funding short-term education initiatives, but on supporting host countries that agree to give refugees the chance to work and live in dignity. For many refugee families, work is a prerequisite to education, and education will be critical for children to contribute to Turkish communities, and to the future of Syria. 

School supplies belonging to a Syrian refugee child enrolled in her local public school in Turkey.  

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Copyright

I talked to “Nabeel,” a 52-year-old man from Syria a few days ago in the resort town of Cesme on Turkeys’ Aegean coast. He told me how the overcrowded boat he’d boarded with his wife and four children a few days earlier sank. Turkish coastguards saved them. With his 9-year-old son by his side, he told me his priority was his children’s future. “I just want my kids to be in school, and to have medical care. If this was provided in Turkey or Lebanon I would have stayed.”

Watching the news from London, it would be easy to think the EU’s deal with Turkey on refugees is a simple trade-off: three billion Euros, visa free travel and the reopening of EU accession negotiations for Turkey in exchange for stemming the flow of the hundreds of thousands of men, women and children who have been arriving on Europe’s shores via Turkey. But spending a week speaking to asylum seekers and nongovernmental groups in Turkey made clear that the situation on the ground there is complex, and that Turkey alone is not the answer.

Though it doesn’t recognize them as refugees, Turkey provides most of the more than two million Syrians living there with temporary protection that allows them to get medical treatment and education. Earlier this month, the Turkish government announced that it would give work permits to Syrians who have been in Turkey for over six months. But important as that step is, giving Syrians the right to work is unlikely to deter people seeking protection in Europe or risking their lives in the process. The deaths of more 40 people —including 17 children — when their boats sank in the Aegean last week makes that clear.

First, these measures only benefit Syrians. Though the largest group, Syrians are not the only ones crossing into Europe. In Turkey, Hungary and the Western Balkans, I have spoken to Iraqi Yezidis fleeing the horrors of ISIS, Afghans who had received death threats from the Taliban, and Ethiopians who fled human rights abuses at home. They will continue to need protection as long as the reasons that push them out of their own countries persist, but around 100,000 Iraqis, more than 45,000 Afghans, and almost 15,000 Iranians in Turkey don’t have temporary protection or access to the benefits to which Syrians are entitled.

Second, despite efforts by the Turkish government and many Turks to help, the situation for Syrians in Turkey remains dire. Up to 400,000 Syrian children are out of school because their families cannot afford school supplies or transportation or encounter language barriers or widespread discrimination against Syrians in Turkish schools. Registered Syrians also have the right to medical care in the town in which they are registered, but lack information about their rights and face discrimination. Workers in groups helping refugees spoke of Syrians being turned away or treated with contempt in schools and hospitals.

Hopefully, work permits will help many Syrians to benefit from the protections of legal work and will be an important step toward ending rampant child labor of Syrian children who work to support their families. But, as with formal access to education and health care, barriers to employment are likely to persist and many Syrians are likely to remain marginalized.

If it is properly disbursed and reaches the intended beneficiaries, the three billion Euros could help make life a little easier for Syrians in Turkey. But with widespread prejudice against Syrians, the priority should be ensuring that Syrians in Turkey can actually get jobs, health services, and education there.

Expecting Turkey to host ever greater numbers of Syrians and other asylum seekers when it has not yet addressed these issues will only exacerbate them, and people will continue to turn to smugglers to bring them to Europe.

With no end to the violence in Syria, Afghanistan or Iraq or to human rights abuses in many other refugee-producing countries, EU governments should not turn their backs on the people risking their lives for protection. Last year, EU member states agreed to resettle about 22,500 refugees from Turkey and other first-asylum countries, but by the end of 2015 had admitted only 779. The EU cannot expect Turkey to do more when its own member states do so little to share responsibility.

As they sit in Brussels, Berlin or Copenhagen, EU leaders should ask themselves: what would I do if I had to save my family from bullets and bombs, and where would I go for my children’s future? I’m sure their priorities would be the same as Nabeel’s.

• Türkçe

Birkaç gün önce Türkiye’nin Ege kıyısında bir tatil kasabası olan Çeşme’de 52 yaşında bir Suriyeli olan “Nabeel” ile konuştum. Birka gün önce karısı ve dört çocuğuyla birlikte bindiği aşırı kalabalık botun nasıl battığını anlattı. Onları Türkiye’nin sahil güvenlik ekibi kurtarmış. Yanında 9 yaşındaki oğlu otururken bana hayattaki önceliğinin çocuklarının geleceği olduğunu söyledi. “Tek istediğim çocuklarımın okula gitmeleri ve sağlık hizmeti almaları. Eğer bunlar Türkiye veya Lübnan’da mümkün olsaydı, orada kalırdım.”

Haberler Londra’dan dinlendiğinde, Avrupa Birliği’nin (AB) Türkiye ile yaptığı anlaşmanın basit bir değiş tokuş olduğunu kolaylıkla düşünülebilir: üç milyar Avro, vizesiz seyahat ve Türkiye’nin AB üyeliği müzakerelerinin yeniden başlaması karşılığında yüz binlerce kadın, erkek ve çocuğun Türkiye üzerinden Avrupa sahillerine göç akışının önlenmesi. Oysa, Türkiye’de bir hafta boyunca sığınmacılarla ve hükümet dışı kuruluşlarla konuşmak, sahadaki durumun çok daha karmaşık olduğunu ve Türkiye’nin tek başına bu sorunun çözümü olmadığını net olarak ortaya koydu.

Türkiye, ülkede yaşayan iki milyonu aşkın Suriyeli’yi mülteci olarak tanımasa da,  çoğunluğunun sağlık hizmeti ve eğitim almalarına olanak veren geçici koruma sağlıyor. Bu ay başında Türkiye hükümeti, altı aydan uzun süredir Türkiye’de yaşayan Suriyelilere çalışma izni verileceğini ilan etti. Ancak bu önemli bir adım olsa da, Suriyelilere çalışma hakkı vermek büyük ihtimalle insanları Avrupa’ya iltica etmeye çalışmaktan veya bu uğurda hayatlarını tehlikeye atmaktan vazgeçirmeyecektir. Geçen hafta Ege’de bindikleri botun batması sonucu aralarında 17 çocuğun da olduğu 40’dan fazla insanın ölmesi de bunun ispatı.

İlk olarak, bu tedbirlerden yalnızca Suriyeliler faydalanıyor. Oysa, en kalabalık grup olsalar da Avrupa’ya geçenler sadece Suriyeliler değil. Türkiye, Macaristan ve Batı Balkanlarda IŞİD dehşetinden kaçan Iraklı Yezidilerle, Taliban’ın ölümle tehdit ettiği Afganlarla ve ülkelerindeki insan hakları ihlallerinden kaçan Etiyopyalılarla konuştum. Ülkelerinden kaçmalarına yol açan sebepler ortadan kalkmadığı sürece korunma ihtiyaçları devam edecek, ama Tükiye’deki yaklaşık 100,000 Iraklı, 45,000’den fazla Afgan ve neredeyse 15,000 İranlı geçici korumadan faydalanmıyor veya Suriyelilere sağlanan sosyal yardımlara da sahip değiller.

İkincisi, Türkiye hükümetinin ve birçok Türkiyelinin yardım etme çabalarına karşın Türkiye’deki Suriyelilerin durumu oldukça kötü. Yaklaşık 400,000 Suriyeli çocuk okula gitmiyor, çünkü ailelerinin okul malzemelerini veya ulaşımı karşılayacak gücü yok veya dil engeliyle ya da Türkiye okullarında Suriyelilere yönelik yaygın ayrımcılıkla karşı karşıya kalıyorlar. Kayıtlı Suriyelilerin, kayıtlı oldukları şehirlerde sağlık hizmeti alma hakkı da bulunuyor, ama haklarıyla ilgili bilgi sahibi değiller ve ayrımcılığa maruz kalıyorlar. Mültecilere destek veren gruplarda çalışanlar, Suriyelilerin okullardan ve hastanelerden geri çevrildiklerini veya saygısızca muamele gördüklerini anlattı.

Umulur ki verilen çalışma izinleri birçok Suriyelinin yasal çalışmanın getireceği korumalardan faydalanmalarını sağlar ve ailelerine destek olmak için çalışan Suriyeli çocuklar arasında çok yaygın olan çocuk işçiliğinin sona ermesi için önemli bir adım olur. Ne var ki, eğitim ve sağlık hizmetine erişim hakkında olduğu gibi, istihdamın önündeki engeller de büyük olasılıkla ortadan kalkmayacak ve birçok Suriyeli dışlanmaya devam edecek.

Eğer uygun biçimde dağıtılır ve hedeflenen hak sahiplerine ulaşırsa üç milyar Avro Türkiye’de yaşayan Suriyelilerin hayatının biraz daha kolaylaşmasına yardımcı olabilir. Ama Suriyelilere yönelik yaygın önyargı düşünüldüğünde, öncelik Türkiye’deki Suriyelilere gerçek anlamda iş, sağlık hizmeti ve eğitim sağlamaya verilmelidir.

Bu meseleleri ele alıp çözümlemeden Türkiye’nin daha da fazla Suriyeliye ve diğer ülkelerden sığınmacılara ev sahipliği yapmasını beklemek, bu sorunları sadece şiddetlendirecektir ve insanlar da kendilerini Avrupa’ya götürmeleri için kaçakçılardan medet ummayı sürdürecektir.

Suriye, Afganistan ya da Irak’ta şiddetin veya diğer mülteci üreten ülkelerdeki insan hakları ihlallerinin sona erme ihtimali olmadığına göre AB hükümetleri korunma elde etmek için hayatlarını tehlikeye atan insanlara sırt çevirmemelidir. Geçen sene AB üye ülkeleri Türkiye’den ve diğer ilk sığınma ülkelerinden yaklaşık 22,500 mülteciyi yeniden yerleştirmeyi kabul ettiler ama 2015 sonuna gelindiğinde yerleştirilen kişi sayısı yalnızca 779’du. AB, kendi üye devletleri sorumluluk paylaşımında bu kadar az şey yaparken Türkiye’den daha çok şey yapmasını bekleyemez.

AB liderleri Brüksel’de, Berlin’de veya Kopenhag’da otururlarken kendilerine şu soruyu sormalılar: ailemi kurşunlardan ve bombalardan korumak zorunda kalsaydım ne yapardım ve çocuklarımın geleceği için nereye giderdim? Önceliklerinin Nabeel’inkilerle aynı olacağından eminim.

• English

January 29, 2016

To: Donors attending the “Supporting Syria and the Region” conference

Human Rights Watch welcomes the upcoming Syria conference. It is essential that it should deliver a greatly strengthened international effort to support desperate and vulnerable Syrians, both within the country and in neighbouring states, as well as those that have arrived in Europe or seek refuge there.

The conference will focus heavily on financial commitments and the need for more assistance for countries like Lebanon, Turkey, and Jordan, who between them are hosting 4 million Syrian refugees.  Increased resources are certainly needed. But aid alone will not adequately address the range of challenges that Syrians face.  Based on our research, described in detail in the attached memorandum, Human Rights Watch has identified a need for action in three areas, if Syrians are to be better protected and assisted and their rights upheld. 

First, we urge donors to call on Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey to end current practices that violate the prohibition on refoulement and secure commitments to this at the conference. Although they are legally obliged to ensure that people fleeing Syria, including Palestinian refugees and other habitual residents of Syria, are able to seek asylum, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey have all restricted entry to refugees from Syria in 2015 and pushed back asylum seekers or forcibly returned refugees, in violation of their international obligations.

Second, donors should call on host countries to end harsh registration requirements that are nearly impossible for most refugees to meet. In January 2015, for example, Lebanese authorities implemented new border entry regulations, denying entry to refugees fleeing armed conflict and persecution in Syria, and imposed costly and restrictive regulations, effectively barring most refugees from renewing their residencies in Lebanon. Refugees without legal status are liable to arrest, and the lack of status has often prohibited refugees’ access to livelihoods, healthcare, and education, worsening their economic and social conditions, and, in the process, increasing not alleviating the burden on the host community. The renewal process is itself often abusive and arbitrary. In May 2015, Lebanese authorities demanded that UNHCR stop registering Syrian refugees in Lebanon.

Third, we urge donors to work with host countries to lift existing barriers on access to education for Syrian children.  These barriers include requirements that Syrian children produce official school certificates – which many families left behind when they fled Syria – in order to enroll in school.  In Jordan and Lebanon, policies that subject Syrians to arrest and other penalties for lacking residency status or working without permits contribute to child labor and school drop-outs, since impoverished families see children as less at risk than adults for working. In January 2016, Turkey published a regulation that will allow some Syrians to apply for work permits. If the policy is fairly and rapidly implemented, enabling Syrians to support themselves, it should have significant benefits for refugee children. Donors should urge Lebanon and Jordan to make comparable changes that authorize refugees to work lawfully.

Education funding is needed for the infrastructure that supports schools, staff, teacher training, and support for Syrian families to cover costs such as transport fees. There is a lack of support programs or language assistance for Syrian children adjusting to new and difficult curricula, which are often taught in languages – such as Turkish and English – in which they have little or no education. Widespread corporal punishment has also led some Syrian students to drop out. Enrollment in secondary education is poor, and inclusive education for children with disabilities is often non-existent.

Countries outside the region, including members of the European Union, the United States, Australia, Russia, and the Gulf states, should share responsibility for hosting Syrian refugees with Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon, including by increasing safe resettlement opportunities. But resettlement should not be regarded as a substitute for asylum. European Union and other governments should ensure that Syrians and others seeking protection have the opportunity to present asylum claims at their land borders and ensure access to asylum for those present on their territory.

Refugees will not be able to return to Syria any time soon, no matter how hard life is in host countries or how perilous the journey to Europe. Financial pledges are a crucial response to the crisis, but by themselves not sufficient to resolve Syrians’ plight. A sustainable, comprehensive and effective response plan needs to include the specific policy changes that are addressed in the attached memorandum.

Thank you in advance for considering these proposals.

Sincerely,

Bill Frelick

Director, Refugee Rights Program

Memorandum to donors participating in the “Supporting Syria and the Region” conference, February 2016

January 2016

This conference is an opportunity to support Syrians at a time of desperate need. Human Rights Watch encourages donors to meet the conference’s stated goals by increasing and ensuring the sustainability of their support for Syrian nationals and Palestinian residents of Syria both within and outside Syria and for refugee host countries, creating economic opportunities and access to education for refugees and other displaced persons, improving capacity to address sexual and gender based violence, and pressuring parties to the conflict to protect civilians.

To succeed, participants in the conference should also address policies that, as Human Rights Watch has documented, undermine these goals by harming Syrian refugees whether they are staying in host countries, seeking resettlement, or seeking asylum in Europe.

As this memorandum describes, donors should take specific measures to pressure host governments to end harmful and abusive policies including border closures, pushbacks, and refoulement of asylum seekers; harsh registration requirements that are impossible for most refugees to meet; and restrictions on access to education. Donors including in the United States, European Union (EU) and Gulf states should share responsibility for hosting Syrian refugees with Turkey, Jordan, and Lebanon, including by increasing safe resettlement opportunities and increasing the capacity of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to process resettlement cases. European Union governments should ensure that Syrians and others seeking protection in Europe have the opportunity to present asylum claims at EU land borders and ensure access to asylum for those present in EU territory.

Refugees will not be able to return to Syria soon, no matter how hard life is in host countries or how perilous the journey to Europe. Financial pledges are a crucial response to the crisis, but by themselves not sufficient to resolve Syrians’ plight. A sustainable, comprehensive, and effective response plan needs to include specific policy changes. Detailed information on harmful policies and recommendations to address them follow.

1. Border closures, pushbacks, and refoulement

The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, stated in its latest country guidance on Syria that “all parts of the country are now embroiled in violence.” UNHCR has urged “all countries to ensure that persons fleeing Syria, including Palestinian refugees and other habitual residents of Syria, are admitted to their territory and are able to seek asylum.” Yet, in 2015, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey all restricted entry to Syrian refugees and forcibly returned Syrian asylum seekers to Syria in violation of the customary international law prohibition on refoulement. Turkey has now introduced visa requirements for Syrians entering the country by air and sea. Donors concerned for the welfare of Syrian refugees should insist that host countries at minimum do not force them back to the war zone from which they are fleeing. Donors should also expedite the resettlement process and increase the number of places for Syrians in resettlement countries.

Jordan

Jordan has generously hosted more than 635,000 Syrians while the government estimates many more unregistered Syrians also live in Jordan. Jordan allowed Syrians to enter the country until mid-2013, but then closed its border near Syria’s most populated areas in the west, which forced Syrians to travel hundreds of kilometers to the far north-eastern part of Jordan, where some were allowed to enter.^[1] In July 2014, Jordan also severely restricted entry at the north-eastern border crossings. Since then, thousands of Syrians have waited to reach Jordan’s asylum seeker transit sites for two to three months, in a demilitarized zone inside Jordan, several hundred meters south of the Syrian-Jordanian border. Asylum seekers are living in tents just north of a raised sand barrier, or “berm,” without adequate humanitarian assistance.

Although the authorities allowed people reaching the border to move onto the transit sites further inside Jordan in early 2015, authorities reverted to holding Syrians at the berm in March. Since then, Syrians – the vast majority women and children – have again remained stuck there for months, and border guards have only allowed a few dozen a day to reach the transit sites.^[2] In January 2016, Jordan acknowledged that 16,000 people were stuck at the berm and stated that most would remain there for security reasons until other countries agreed to take them.^[3][4]

Since late 2012, Jordan has systematically denied Palestinians from Syria access to the country and deported hundreds back to Syria.^[5] Jordan has forcibly returned some Syrians to Syria without allowing them to claim asylum, as well as Syrians to whom the UN refugee agency issued asylum seeker certificates, in violation of the customary international law prohibition against refoulement.^[6]

Donors should call on Jordan to:

• Stop holding refugees and asylum seekers at the berm and allow unimpeded humanitarian assistance to reach them there,
• End the policy of blocking entry to asylum seekers from Syria, including Palestinians, and
• End forcible returns of Syrians, including Palestinians from Syria, and maintain the temporary protection regime for all Syrians and Palestinians from Syria.

Turkey

As of December 2015, Turkey had registered over 2.5 million Syrians, of whom about 250,000 live in 25 camps managed by the Turkish authorities.^[7] In September, Turkey said it had spent US$7.6 billion on assisting Syrian refugees since 2011. Yet Turkey has also closed its borders to people seeking asylum.

Despite sporadic border closures starting in 2012, Turkey allowed Syrians with and without identity documents to enter through official border crossing points until late 2014. However, since early 2015, Turkey has all but closed its borders to Syrians fleeing the conflict who have increasingly been forced to use smugglers to reach Turkey.^[8] In late 2015, Turkish border guards intercepted Syrians who crossed to Turkey using smugglers at or near the border, in some cases beat them, and pushed them and dozens of others back into Syria or detained and then summarily expelled them along with hundreds of others.

In January 2015, Turkey introduced rules requiring Syrians to present valid travel documents to enter.^[9] In January 2016, Turkey imposed visa requirements for Syrians wishing to enter the country by air or sea. The day the visa requirements came into force, at least 200 Syrians without Turkish visas were forcibly returned from Lebanon to Damascus by air after being refused permission to fly to Turkey. 

Until early March 2015, Syrians crossed through the only two official border crossing points with Syria still open at that time.^[10] On March 9, the Turkish authorities announced they were closing both crossing points and that only aid trucks and authorized traders could cross. As of mid-January 2016, the crossings had still not re-opened. Since March 2015, Turkey has allowed only two categories of people to enter through the two crossing points: gravely injured Syrians who cannot be treated in Syria, and Syrians registered with Turkey’s emergency relief agency who have been given special permission to go briefly to Syria before returning to Turkey.^[11]

Until July 2015, Syrians continued to cross with smugglers into Turkey.^[12] On July 22, two days after a suicide bombing by an individual trained by the extremist group Islamic State (also known as ISIS) killed 32 people in Turkey, Turkey announced it would take additional steps to secure its 822-kilometer border with Syria, including by building a 150-kilometer wall, reinforcing wire fencing, and digging a 365-kilometer trench. Since the end of July, Turkish border guards have increasingly prevented Syrians from crossing into Turkey, which has meant that most Syrians now cross through one informal crossing point that remains hard to police. Some camps for displaced persons inside Syria near the Turkish border are unsafe; Human Rights Watch documented Russian or Syrian government attacks using cluster munitions that hit one such camp in November 2015, killing at least seven civilians and injuring dozens.^[13]

Turkey was the main transit route for Syrians and others seeking to reach the European Union. In November 2015, Turkey agreed to a migration action plan with the EU, undertaking to prevent irregular migration into the EU and into Turkey, in exchange for €3 billion (roughly $2.75 billion) assistance aimed at supporting Syrians in Turkey, reinvigorated negotiations over future EU membership, and the promise of visa-free travel for Turkish citizens in European countries participating in the Schengen free movement area. The agreement gave rise to concerns that Turkey would reinforce restrictions on access to its territory for Syrians and others in need of protection and subject those seeking to reach EU territory to abuse and impede their access to asylum.

Donors should:

• Call on Turkey to end practices that violate the prohibition on refoulement, including by preventing access to its territory for Syrians and summarily returning them to Syria.
• As applicable, carefully monitor their agreements with Turkey to limit the onward movement of asylum seekers from Turkey to assess whether they have led to unlawful Turkish practices, including prevention of asylum seekers from leaving Syria and loss of temporary protected status for those caught trying to cross into Europe, and revise those agreements as necessary to ensure no funding is supporting such practices.

Lebanon

Lebanon, with more than 1.2 million Syrian refugees, is hosting more refugees per capita than any other country. However, Lebanon has forcibly returned Syrians, including people who may have been refugees, in what appears to be a violation of its international obligations, and has imposed harmful residency requirements that few Syrian refugees can meet.

On January 8, 2016, Lebanese authorities returned at least 200 and perhaps more than 400 Syrians traveling through Beirut airport back to Syria without first assessing their risk of harm upon return there.^[14] Human Rights Watch learned through actors present at the airport on January 8 that some passengers expressed a fear of return to Syria but that Lebanese authorities returned them anyway. Human Rights Watch previously documented the forcible return of four Syrian nationals to Syria on August 1, 2012, about three dozen Palestinians to Syria on May 4, 2014, and the forcible return or suspected return of three other Syrians that year.^[15]

In January 2015, Lebanese authorities implemented new border entry regulations, denying entry to Syrians fleeing armed conflict and persecution, and imposed costly and restrictive regulations, effectively barring most refugees from renewing their residencies in Lebanon. In May 2015, the Lebanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs demanded that UNHCR stop registering Syrian refugees in Lebanon. 

A recent report by Human Rights Watch documented that the regulations left most refugees without legal status, which often prohibited their access to livelihoods, healthcare, education, and shelter resulting in an unprecedented deterioration of their legal and socio-economic status and further burdening the host community.^[16] Female refugees reported heightened risks of abuse and exploitation.^[17]

Lebanon is in urgent need of greater international assistance, but refugee protection is essential. Absent the implementation of key policy changes by the Lebanese authorities, donor aid will fail to help Lebanon properly assist refugees or to promote greater stability in Lebanon by ensuring that Syrian refugees are not driven to destitution. 

The regulations sort Syrians seeking to renew residency permits into two categories: those registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the United Nations refugee agency, and those who are not, who must find a Lebanese sponsor to remain legally in the country. All must pay a $200 annual fee for renewals – which most cannot not afford – and provide identification papers and documentation about their lodging.^[18]

Human Rights Watch research has shown that the renewal process is itself abusive and arbitrary. For instance, many refugees who are registered with UNHCR told Human Rights Watch that General Security asked them to provide a work sponsor, even though regulations do not require it. Refugees and aid workers also said that some General Security employees and local officials use the renewal process to interrogate Syrians about security issues, and in some cases, to solicit sexual or financial favors.

Refugees without legal status may restrict their movement due to fear of arrest, affecting their ability to find work.^[19] Nearly 90 percent are trapped in a cycle of debt, according to a recent United Nations assessment, and many have exhausted their financial reserves. Loss of legal status leaves refugees vulnerable to labor and sexual exploitation by employers, without the ability to turn to authorities for protection. Even those who do find sponsors do not benefit from protection under Lebanon’s labor laws and are vulnerable to those to whom they owe their legal status.

Human Rights Watch documented sexual assault, harassment, or attempted sexual exploitation of women and girls, sometimes repeatedly, by employers, landlords, local faith-based aid distributors, and community members.^[20]

Refugees who are unable to work have less money for school transportation or supplies for their children’s schooling. Since children are less likely than adults to be stopped at checkpoints, more children are being sent to work to sustain their families rather than to school. Some work in dangerous conditions, and others drop out of school to work. Some school directors refuse to enroll children without valid residency, even though the Ministry of Education has indicated that residency is not required for enrollment. Newborn children are at risk of becoming stateless because their parents cannot obtain official birth certificates in Lebanon without legal status.

Donors should call on Lebanese authorities to:

• Ensure that no one fleeing Syria is forcibly returned or refused entry at the border,
• Lift the ban on UNHCR registration of Syrians who arrived after January 2015, and provide unrestricted access to UNHCR so that it can determine refugee status for any Syrian who expresses a fear of persecution if returned to Syria – even if the person is detained and was not registered with UNHCR at the time of detention, 
• Waive residency renewal fees for all Syrians, waive the pledge not to work for Syrians registered with UNHCR, and cancel the sponsorship pledge for Syrians not registered with UNHCR,
• Allow Syrians without legal residency to regularize their status, and publish clear information about procedures needed for Syrians to renew their status,
• End the practice of detaining refugees because they do not have legal residency status, and
• Inform refugees who have been subject to sexual harassment and exploitation of how to file a complaint, ensure that claims are investigated and the abusers held accountable, and ensure that women who report sexual and gender-based violence are not prosecuted for immigration law violations; and dedicate funding and design programming to provide protection, along with medical and psycho-social support for survivors.

2.     Access to Education

Lebanon

Despite a positive Back to School campaign launched in 2015, Lebanon’s latest Crisis Response Plan estimates that more than 220,000 children between the ages of 6-14 are still not in school.^[21] There is an immediate need to fully fund formal education for all Syrian children in Lebanon. However, funding alone will not address all the serious barriers to education that Human Rights Watch has documented.

Human Rights Watch found that even when formal schooling is available at no cost, Syrian refugees are often unable to enroll their children. With 70 percent of refugees living below the poverty line and 89 percent in debt averaging $842, many families cannot afford the transportation costs or supplies required to send children to school. Others depend on child labor to feed their family and pay rent. Human Rights Watch also found that, contrary to government policy, individual school directors are imposing additional enrollment requirements, including valid residency, UNHCR registration, or medical records from Syria.

Several other factors deter Syrian enrollment and lead to drop-outs. Refugee families report widespread corporal punishment and discrimination against Syrian children in Lebanese schools. Many told Human Rights Watch in early December 2015 that their children had still not received textbooks several months into the school year, or complained that their children were not learning or understanding school lessons. There is a lack of support programs or language assistance for children adjusting to a new and difficult curriculum, which from grade seven (for children aged around 13) is often taught in English or French, languages in which Syrian students have very little education.

Lebanese secondary schools charge fees and require valid residency. The enrollment rate for Syrians in secondary education is estimated at only 5 percent for 15- to 17-year old children – an age range in which lack of residency and financial pressure to work are particularly prevalent. Human Rights Watch found a near-total lack of inclusive education for children with disabilities in public primary schools.

Donors to educational programs in Lebanon should:

• Call on the authorities to ensure that Lebanon’s school enrollment criteria are clearly communicated to individual school directors and properly implemented,
• Call on the authorities to ensure residency requirements are not imposed as a condition for school enrollment, and waive the residency requirement to enroll in secondary school,
• Work with the Lebanese authorities to ensure that indirect costs, like transport and supplies, are not barriers to primary education,
• Invest in livelihood programs that ease financial barriers to education,
• Earmark funding for teacher training, remedial support programs, secondary education, and inclusive education for children with disabilities.

Jordan

Jordan has opened free “second shifts” at nearly 100 primary schools to accommodate Syrian children in host communities. New schools opened in 2015 in Zaatari, the country’s largest refugee camp. However, as Jordan’s Response Plan for the Syria Crisis (2016-18) notes, “nearly 100,000 Syrian children are missing out formal education,” because their families cannot cover the cost of transportation and education material, or depend on their children to generate income to meet basic needs.

Violence and bullying in school and on the way to school, as well as widespread corporal punishment and perceptions of discrimination from teachers, lead Syrian children to drop out of school. More donor funding for teacher training and to decrease class sizes could help address these problems.

School officials often require Syrian children to produce official Syrian school certificates in order to enroll in secondary school, or at the grade level of their age group in primary school. Yet many Syrian families fled without these documents, and the alternative – for the children to repeat grades they cannot prove they attended – is unappealing. School officials are concerned that children who have missed foundational years will lower the quality of education if they are placed in higher grades, but Jordan could address those concerns by implementing standardized school-placement tests, and working with nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to expand accelerated learning programs in host communities, not only in camps, that bring out-of-school children up to their grade level.

Because Syrians caught working without work permits, which virtually none has, are liable to arrest and transfer to a refugee camp, a large percentage of Syrian families in host communities depend on their children to work, as children are seen as at less risk of arrest. As a result, children drop out of school to work, including in hazardous conditions. These policies also dissuade Syrian children from pursuing an education, since schooling will not help them on the only available job market for low-paid, unskilled labor. Reportedly due to fears that skilled Syrian workers could compete with Jordanian workers, Jordan does not allow humanitarian NGOs to operate vocational training programs for children and young adults outside of the main refugee camps, where about 83 percent of Syrian refugees live. The International Labour Organization (ILO) has recommended that Jordan give refugees access to work, and that the international community support measures to mitigate negative perceptions and economic impacts amongst host communities.

Jordanian authorities have not permitted Syrians who left the country’s refugee camps after July 2014 to register their non-camp residence with UNHCR, receive humanitarian support, or obtain government-issued identification cards.^[22] The policy may prevent thousands of Syrian refugee children who have left Azraq or Zaatari camps since July 2014 from enrolling in public schools, which require Syrians to present such documents.^[23]

Donors should call on Jordan to improve its policies affecting Syrian refugees’ access to education by:

• Working with donors to ensure that indirect costs, like transport and supplies, are not barriers to primary education,
• Ensuring humanitarian agencies can operate accelerated learning and vocational training programs for Syrian refugees living outside refugee camps,
• Ensuring that Syrian children whose families lack official documents, including Syrians who arrived after July 2014, are able to enroll in public schools, and
• Committing to working with donors to establish programs granting access to lawful work for Syrian refugees.

Turkey

Turkey, which is hosting more Syrian refugees than any other country, says it has spent billions of dollars on its refugee response. It has implemented positive policy changes to accommodate the protracted nature of the crisis, particularly by issuing a temporary protection regulation in October 2014 that ensured Syrians could remain lawfully in Turkey without official residency permits. Under its temporary protection regime, it has allowed Syrian children to attend public schools free of charge and begun to accredit independent schools that teach a modified Syrian curriculum in Arabic—called “temporary education centers.” In January 2016, Turkey published a regulation that will allow Syrians with temporary protection status to apply for work permits six months after they receive temporary protection status.^[24] Enabling Syrians to support themselves should have significant benefits for refugee children’s access to education, since child labor is a major cause of drop-outs and non-enrollment.

However, around 400,000 Syrian children in Turkey are not in school. While giving Syrians lawful access to the public school system was an important step, practical barriers—including a language barrier, lack of information, economic hardship, and bullying of children by other school children—continue to prevent children from taking advantage of that access. Furthermore, some schools are turning away Syrian children who are fully entitled to attend, in direct contravention of the relevant regulations.

The Turkish ministry of education has indicated its commitment to addressing these issues by developing programs to offer language assistance, teacher training, and better oversight to ensure that schools across the country comply with their directives. In addition, it has supported the construction of new temporary education centers and provided avenues for qualified Syrian teachers to be compensated for their work in those centers. But more will need to be done, and urgently, in order to prevent a generation of Syrian children in Turkey from growing up without an education.

Donors should encourage Turkey to maintain its commitment to positive policies and offer the crucial financial and technical support necessary to ensure that all Syrian children are able to attend school. In particular, donors should support efforts to:

• Fairly and rapidly implement the new policy giving Syrian refugees access to work permits in Turkey,
• Implement accelerated Turkish language programs for non-Turkish language proficient students through the public school system,
• Closely monitor and supervise local compliance with national directives related to the education of Syrian children,
• Invest in training for teachers and school personnel tailored to educating non-Turkish-speaking refugees in order to combat discrimination and encourage social inclusion, and
• Disseminate accurate information to Syrian refugees, including those in harder-to-reach areas, regarding the procedures and requirements for school registration.

There is an acute need for participants to meet the goals of this conference through generous donations and by pressuring all parties to the conflict in Syria to protect civilians. Donors should also call on host countries to revise policies, described in this memorandum, that may harm their stability as well as the rights of refugees.

(Berlin) Human rights activists, independent journalists, academics and others in Turkey are sounding the alarm bells over a dramatic worsening of human rights conditions in the country, and are urging Germany to listen.  

On my recent visit to Istanbul, activists told me they hoped Germany, as a key European Union member, would take a strong role in pressing the Turkish government to end its crackdown. They are worried that with the EU giving priority to co-operation to prevent refugees from leaving Turkey for the EU, it has been unwilling to seriously address Turkey’s serious human rights violations in talks with Ankara.

The accounts of the activists and others highlight the urgency. Nil Mutluer, head of sociology at Istanbul’s Nişantaşı University, told me she fears for her job simply because she signed a petition. The document, endorsed by over 1,000 academics, calls on the government to end its conflict with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Turkey’s southeast, where armed clashes between security forces and the PKK have led to rising civilian deaths and widespread suffering.

Rather than listen to an influential group of intellectuals, President Erdoğan and then the government labelled them “terrorists,” triggering harassment of the petitioners, including a criminal investigation, and putting universities under pressure to investigate and even dismiss them. “We sign so many petitions, but the government evidently wants to stop all public debate over what’s happening in Kurdish areas.” Mutluer told me.

Across town at P24, a media freedom group, Yasemin Çongar, one of the founders, is equally concerned. She says many media are facing unprecedented measures to halt independent reporting. With the concern on her face reflected in candle-light  as we met during a power outage, she told me that  33 journalists are in prison for their work, that many  gag orders have been imposed to stop coverage of sensitive issues, and that dozens of journalists have been fired at the government’s behest. “We thought a couple of years ago it could not get worse,” she told me. “Now it certainly has.”

Recent events involving Cumhuriyet, one of Turkey’s few remaining independent papers, are proof. We met senior staff in the office of the editor, Can Dündar. He is not at his desk but in prison, because of a story on alleged secret arms shipments to Syria the paper published last May. “Can was doing his job as a journalist, nothing more” said Doğan Satmış, a journalist at the paper. Eight Cumhuriyet staff have been killed because of their work in the last 30 years. At the time of our meeting the charges against Dundar were not known but Satmış said he feared a “heavy indictment,” On January 27 Dundar and a colleague were handed charges that could lead to life sentences.

Those I met said the plight of refugees and asylum seekers in Turkey and in the EU was serious, but that this should not overshadow these human rights issues.

Germany says it is alarmed about human rights developments in Turkey. A senior German Foreign Ministry expert told members of parliament last week of serious concerns about press freedom and about the conflict in the southeast. In recent months over 200 civilians had been killed and over 700 injured, the expert said.

It is time for Germany to ensure that these issues are a political priority for the EU before the crisis in Turkey worsens. After all, an unstable Turkey is unlikely to be a place refugees will want to remain and rising human rights violations and escalating conflict in the southeast could even lead to new refugee flows from Turkey itself.

• Deutsch

(Berlin) Türkische Menschenrechtsaktivisten, unabhängige Journalisten, Wissenschaftler und andere läuten die Alarmglocken, weil sich die Menschenrechtslage in der Türkei dramatisch verschlechtert - und plädieren an Deutschland, ihnen zuzuhören.

Als ich kürzlich nach Istanbul reiste, sprach ich mit vielen Aktivisten. Sie alle hofften, dass Deutschland, eines der wichtigsten EU-Länder, sich gegen die Menschenrechtsverletzungen der türkischen Regierung stark machen werde. Die europäische Politik beobachteten sie hingegen mit Sorge. Da die EU aktuell darauf setzt, mit der Türkei zusammenzuarbeiten, um geflüchtete Menschen davon abzuhalten, nach Europa weiterzureisen, scheint sie nicht bereit zu sein, die schweren Rechtsverstöße der Regierung ernsthaft anzusprechen.

Was die Aktivisten und andere berichten, unterstreicht, wie brenzlig die Lage momentan ist. Nil Mutluer, Leiterin des Instituts für Soziologie der Nişantaşı-Universität in Istanbul, befürchtet, ihre Arbeit zu verlieren - weil sie nichts weiter getan hat als eine Petition zu unterzeichnen. Dieses Dokument, das mehr als 1.000 Wissenschaftler unterstützen, ruft die Regierung dazu auf, die Auseinandersetzungen mit der Arbeiterpartei Kurdistans (PKK) im Südosten des Landes zu beenden. Dort sterben immer mehr Zivilisten in bewaffneten Kämpfen zwischen Sicherheitskräften und der PKK, die Bevölkerung leidet zunehmend unter der Gewalt.

Statt einer einflussreichen Gruppe von Intellektuellen zuzuhören, bezeichnete erst Präsident Erdoğan und dann die Regierung sie als „Terroristen“. Damit waren weiteren Einschüchterungen Tür und Tor geöffnet. Die Regierung leitete eine strafrechtliche Ermittlung ein und setzte Universitäten unter Druck, die Unterzeichner der Petition zu überprüfen und sie gegebenenfalls zu entlassen. „Wir beteiligen uns immer an vielen Petitionen, aber scheinbar will die Regierung jede öffentliche Auseinandersetzung damit, was in den kurdischen Gebieten vorgeht, unterbinden“, meint Mutluer.

In einem anderen Stadtteil traf ich Yasemin Çongar, eine Leiterin von P24, einer Gruppe, die sich für die Medienfreiheit einsetzt. Sie war ebenfalls zutiefst beunruhigt und berichtete, dass die Regierung mit beispiellosen Maßnahmen versucht, unabhängige Berichterstattung zu verhindern. Wir unterhielten uns während eines Stromausfalls, das Kerzenlicht schrieb ihr die Sorge deutlich ins Gesicht. Momentan sind 33 Journalisten wegen ihrer Arbeit im Gefängnis. Die Regierung hat sehr viele einschüchternde Anordnungen erlassen, damit nicht mehr über sensible Themen berichtet wird, und Dutzende Journalisten wurden auf ihr Drängen hin entlassen. „Vor ein paar Jahren dachten wir, schlimmer kann es nicht werden“, sagte sie. „Aber das ist es jetzt.“

Das beweisen auch aktuelle Vorfälle im Umfeld der Cumhuriyet, einer der wenigen noch existierenden, unabhängigen Zeitungen in der Türkei. Im Büro des Herausgebers Can Dündar sprachen wir mit leitenden Redakteuren. Dündar selbst war nicht dabei, er sitzt im Gefängnis wegen eines Berichtsüber mutmaßliche geheime Waffenlieferungen nach Syrien, der im vergangenen Mai veröffentlicht wurde. „Can hat seine Arbeit gemacht, nichts weiter“, so Doğan Satmış, ein Journalist, der für die Cumhurriyet schreibt. In den letzten 30 Jahren wurden acht Angestellte der Zeitung wegen ihrer Arbeit ermordet. Zum Zeitpunkt unseres Treffens war nicht bekannt, was Dündar konkret vorgeworfen wird. Satmış befürchtete allerdings eine „schwere Anklage“. Dann erfuhren Dündar und ein Kollege am 27. Januar, dass ihnen Vergehen vorgeworfen werden, die mit lebenslanger Haft geahndet werden können.

Alle meine Gesprächspartner betonten, dass das Leid der Geflüchteten und Asylsuchenden in der Türkei und in der EU schwer wiegt, die Menschenrechtsprobleme in der Türkei deshalb aber nicht übersehen werden dürfen.

Tatsächlich hat sich die Bundesregierung besorgt über die Erosion der Rechte in der Türkei geäußert. Ein führender Experte des Außenministeriums berichtete dem Bundestag vergangene Woche, dass die Pressefreiheit in Gefahr ist und der Konflikt im Südosten des Landes beunruhigende Ausmaße annimmt. In den letzten Monaten wurden mehr als 200 Zivilisten getötet und mehr als 700 verletzt, so der Experte.

Deutschland muss deutlich machen, dass diese Probleme eine politische Priorität der EU sind, bevor sich die Krise weiter verschärft. Immerhin ist eine instabile Türkei mit Sicherheit kein Land, in dem Geflüchtete werden bleiben wollen. Und die zunehmenden Menschenrechtsverletzungen und der eskalierende Konflikt im Südosten könnten sogar zu einem neuen Flüchtlingsstrom führen, einem aus der Türkei selbst.

• English

(London) – Desperate and vulnerable Syrians need donor countries to step up their assistance greatly, and to match increased aid with action on critical policy reforms in host countries, Human Rights Watch said today. Donor countries will meet in London on February 4, 2016, at the Supporting Syria and the Region conference.

The conference is expected to focus largely on drumming up donations for Syrian refugees and host countries. Human Rights Watch also issued a 14-page report based on research in countries hosting the majority of Syrian refugees. It says that donors should secure commitments from host countries to stop blocking Syrians from fleeing and returning them to a war zone, end harsh registration requirements that are nearly impossible for refugees to meet, and remove obstacles to refugee children’s access to education.

“Host countries in which refugees make up as much as a quarter of the population need vastly more donor assistance, but that money won’t help Syrians who are being pushed back or driven to destitution by harsh policies,” said Bill Frelick, refugee program director at Human Rights Watch. “This conference needs to set a new agenda on Syrian refugees, making respecting their fundamental rights the top priority.”

While recognizing the enormous impact of hosting more than 4.5 million Syrian refugees, donors at the conference should secure commitments from host countries to end practices that violate the prohibition on refoulement, or returning people to countries where they risk serious harm, Human Rights Watch said. Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey are legally obliged to ensure that people fleeing Syria, including Palestinian refugees and other habitual residents of Syria, are able to seek asylum.

But allthreecountries have recently restricted entry to refugees from Syria, pushed back asylum seekers, or forcibly returned refugees. In Jordan, thousands of people who entered from Syria have been stuck for months in desert conditions without adequate assistance in a remote demilitarized zone a few hundred meters south of the Syrian-Jordanian border.

Donor countries outside the region that engage in summary pushbacks at their borders, and use other oppressive measures to deter and divert asylum seekers, are in no position to take the moral high ground with front-line states. It is incumbent on donor countries not only to provide sufficient support to meet humanitarian needs of the refugees in the region, but also to demonstrate a commitment to fair treatment of asylum seekers at their borders, Human Rights Watch said.

European Union and other governments should ensure that Syrians and others can present asylum claims at their land borders and ensure access to asylum for those on their territory. Members of the EU, the United States, Australia, Russia, and the Gulf states should also significantly increase the number of Syrian refugees they are willing to accept for resettlement.

At the conference, donors should call on host countries to end harsh registration requirements that most refugees find nearly impossible to meet. Costly and restrictive Lebanese regulations, for example, have barred most refugees from renewing their legal status in Lebanon since January 2015, causing severe harm to their welfare. Refugees without legal status are liable to arrest and often denied access to livelihoods, health care, and education. In May 2015, Lebanese authorities demanded that the United Nations refugee agency stop registering Syrian refugees in Lebanon.

With hundreds of thousands of Syrian children out of school, donors should not only increase funding for education but also work with host countries to lift barriers on access to education. Host countries should relax harmful restrictions on school enrollment, such as requirements that Syrian children produce official school certificates – which many families left behind when they fled Syria. Lebanon and Jordan should revise policies that subject Syrians to penalties, including arrest, for lacking residency status or working without permits.

Such policies contribute to child labor and school dropouts, since impoverished families see children as less at risk if they work than adults. Turkey should fairly and rapidly implement a new policy to allow some Syrians to apply for work permits to support themselves, which could have significant benefits for refugee children. Donors should urge Lebanon and Jordan to make comparable changes that authorize refugees to work lawfully.

“As long as battles rage in Syria, refugees won’t be able to return, no matter how hard life is in host countries or how perilous the journey to Europe,” Frelick said. “Financial pledges are crucial, but an effective response plan that also reforms bad policies is needed to resolve Syrians’ plight.”

• العربية

(لندن) -قالت "هيومن رايتس ووتش"اليوم إن اليائسين والضعفاء من السوريينبحاجة إلى حد كبير لزيادة الدول المانحة لمساعداتها، والعمل بالتزامن مع ذلك على إصلاحات هامة في سياسات البلدان المُضيفة. ستجتمع الدول المانحة بلندن في 4 فبراير/شباط 2016، في مؤتمر لدعم سوريا والمنطقة.

من المتوقع أن يركّز المؤتمر بشكل كبير على رفع مستوى التبرعات للاجئين السوريين والدول المُضيفة. أصدرت هيومن رايتس ووتش أيضا تقريرامن 14 صفحة اعتمد على أبحاث في البلدان التي تستضيف غالبية اللاجئين السوريين. يقول إنه على المانحين تأمين تعهدات من البلدان المضيفة بوقف منع السوريين من الفرار وعدم إعادتهم إلى منطقة الحرب، وإنهاء متطلبات التسجيل القاسية التي يتعذر على اللاجئين الإيفاء بها، وإزالة العقبات التي تحول دون حصول الأطفال اللاجئين على التعليم.

قال بيل فريليك، مدير برنامج اللاجئين في هيومن رايتس ووتش: "الدول المُضيفة التي يشكل اللاجئون فيها حوالي ربع السكان بحاجة الى مزيد من مساعدات المانحين إلى حد كبير، ولكن هذا المال لا يساعد السوريين الذين يُعادون أو يُدفعون إلى العوز بسبب السياسات القاسية... يجب وضع جدول أعمال بشأن اللاجئين السوريين في هذا المؤتمر، بما يجعل احترام حقوقهم الأساسية أولوية قصوى".
 

قالت هيومن رايتس ووتش إنه مع الاعتراف بالتأثير الكبير لاستضافة أكثر من 4.5 مليون لاجئ سوري، على الجهات المانحة في المؤتمر تأمين تعهدات من البلدان المُضيفة لوضع حد للممارسات التي تنتهك الحظر على الإعادة القسرية، أو إعادة الأشخاص إلى بلدان يتعرضون فيها لخطر ضرر جسيم. يُلزِم القانون الأردن ولبنان وتركيا بضمان أن الذين يفرّون من سوريا، بمن فيهم اللاجئين الفلسطينيين وغيرهم من المقيمين بصفة اعتيادية في سوريا، يستطيعون طلب اللجوء.

قيّدت هذه البلدانالثلاثةجميعهامؤخرا دخول اللاجئين من سوريا، وصدّت طالبي اللجوء، وأعادت لاجئين قسرا. في الأردن، الآلاف من الناس الذين دخلوا من سوريا عالقونمنذ عدة أشهرفي ظروف الصحراء دون مساعدة كافية في منطقة منزوعة السلاح على بعد بضع مئات من الأمتار إلى الجنوب من الحدود السورية الأردنية.

الدول المانحة خارج المنطقة التي تصدّ اللاجئين عند حدودها، وتستخدم تدابير قمعية أخرى لردع وتحويل طالبي اللجوء، ليست في وضع يسمح لها باتخاذ مكانة أخلاقية رفيعة أمام دول خط المواجهة. قالت هيومن رايتس ووتش إنه على الدول المانحة توفير الدعم الكافي لتلبية الاحتياجات الإنسانية للاجئين في المنطقة، وأيضا إظهار الالتزام بمعاملة عادلة لطالبي اللجوء عند حدودها.

على الاتحاد الأوروبي والحكومات الأخرى ضمان أنه يمكن للسوريين وغيرهم تقديم طلبات لجوء على الحدود البرية وضمان الوصول إلى اللجوء لأولئك الموجودين على أراضيها. على أعضاء الاتحاد الأوروبي والولايات المتحدة وأستراليا وروسيا ودول الخليج أيضا زيادة عدد اللاجئين السوريين المستعدين لقبول إعادة توطينهم.

على الجهات المانحة في المؤتمر الطلب من البلدان المُضيفة إنهاء متطلبات التسجيل القاسية التي يتعذر على معظم اللاجئين الإيفاء بها. منعتالشروط اللبنانية المكلفة والمقيِّدة، على سبيل المثال، معظم اللاجئين من تجديد وضعهم القانوني في لبنان منذ يناير/كانون الثاني عام 2015، مما تسبب في ضرر شديد عليهم. أصبح اللاجئون دون الوضع القانوني عرضة للاعتقال وغالبا ما يحرمون من الحصول على سبل العيش، والرعاية الصحية، والتعليم. في مايو/أيار 2015، طلبت السلطات اللبنانية من وكالة الأمم المتحدة للاجئين وقف تسجيل اللاجئين السوريين في لبنان.

مع وجود مئات الآلاف من الأطفال السوريين خارج المدرسة، على الجهات المانحة زيادة تمويل التعليم والعمل أيضا مع البلدان المضيفة لرفع الحواجز من طريق الحصول على التعليم. على البلدان المضيفة تخفيف القيود الضارة على الالتحاق بالمدارس، مثل الطلب من الأطفال السوريين ثبوتيات الشهادات المدرسية الرسمية التي تركتها عائلات كثيرة عندما فرت من سوريا. على لبنان والأردن إعادة النظر في السياسات التي تُخضِع السوريين لعقوبات بما فيها الاعتقال، لافتقارهم إلى الإقامة أو العمل بدون تصاريح.

تساهم مثل هذه السياسات في عمالة الأطفال، والتسرب من المدارس، لأن الأسر الفقيرة ترى الأطفال أقل عرضة للخطر من البالغين إذا كانوا يعملون. على تركيا تنفيذ سياسة جديدة عادلة بسرعة للسماح لبعض السوريين التقدم بطلب للحصول على تصاريح عمل لإعالة أنفسهم، والتي يمكن أن يكون لها فوائدكبيرة للأطفال اللاجئين. على الجهات المانحة أن تحثّ لبنان والأردن على إجراء تغييرات مماثلة تأذن للاجئين بالعمل بشكل قانوني.

قال فريليك: "بينما تستعر المعارك في سوريا، لا يستطيع اللاجئون العودة، بغض النظر عن مدى صعوبة الحياة في البلدان المُضيفة أو الرحلة المحفوفة بالمخاطر إلى أوروبا... التعهدات المالية حاسمة، ولكن خطة الاستجابة الفعالة ضرورية لإجراء إصلاحات في السياسات الرديئة لحل محنة السوريين".

• English

Syrians arrive at a camp for internally displaced persons on the outskirts of Azaz town, 5 kilometers south of Bab al-Salam and Turkey’s closed Öncüpınar border post on February 6, 2016.

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Copyright

• العربية

(اسطنبول) قالت "هيومن رايتس ووتش"اليوم إن على تركيا السماح للسوريين العالقين على الحدود والفارين من القتال داخل وحول مدينة حلب بالتماس الحماية. إجبار الناس على البقاء في منطقة حرب – يواجهون فيها خطر الموت والإصابة –  ليس حلا لمشكل حماية السوريين الفارين من بلادهم.

على حكومات الاتحاد الأوروبيالتي دعت تركياإلى السماح للسوريين بدخول البلاد أن تزيد من توطين السوريين داخل دول الاتحاد. تستضيف تركيا 2.5 مليون لاجئ سوريعلى الأقل، وهو أكبر عدد لاجئين سوريين في بلد واحد، وأكبر عدد من اللاجئين في جميع بلدان العالم.

قال جيري سيمبسون، باحث أول في شؤون اللاجئين في هيومن رايتس ووتش: "تعاملت تركيا بسخاء وآوت 2.5 مليون لاجئ، ولكن عليها ألا تتوقف عن ذلك وتترك آلاف السوريين الذين تقطعت بهم السبل على حافة منطقة حرب. على حكومات تركيا والاتحاد الأوروبي الإبقاء على الحدود مفتوحة أمام السوريين وغيرهم من المحتاجين للحماية".
 

في أواخر يناير/كانون الثاني 2016، بدأت قوات الحكومة السورية المدعومة بالضربات الجوية الروسية هجوما في شمال سوريا لكسر الحصار المفروض من قبل جماعات المعارضة المسلحة على بلدتي نبّل والزهراء، ولقطع مدينة حلب عن تركيا. وثّقتهيومن رايتس ووتش ضربات جوية غير قانونية في الهجوم، بما في ذلك استخدام ذخائر عنقودية عشوائية.

بحسب الأمم المتحدة، فر في الفترة بين 1 و9 فبراير/شباط نحو 45 ألف شخص إثر الهجوم باتجاه المناطق الحدودية القريبة من تركيا، إضافة إلى حوالي 6.5 مليون سوري نازح داخل سوريا.

أعلنوزير الخارجية التركي مولود تشاووش أوغلو في 9 فبراير/شباط أن تركيا سمحت بعبور 10 آلاف سوري خلال فترة قريبة غير محددة "بشكل منظم". لم تؤكد "وكالة الأمم المتحدة للاجئين"في تركيا هذا الزعم.

قال موظفون في هيئات إغاثة لـ هيومن رايتس ووتش إنه في حين سُمح لعدد قليل من الأشخاص المصابين بجروح خطيرة بدخول تركيا لتلقي العلاج، مُنِع آلاف الآخرين من الدخول من معبر باب السلامة (أونجو بينار)، وبقوا بالقرب من الحدود في ظروف قاسية. فرّ الباقون إلى مدن عزاز وعفرين القريبة، أو إلى 8 مخيمات سابقة للنازحين شرق عزاز، على طول الحدود التركية. قال موظفو الإغاثة إن المخيمات أوت 40 ألف نازح سوري قبل الأزمة الأخيرة، وامتلأت الآن بما يفوق طاقتها، بحوالي 50 ألف شخص.

قال ناشطون سوريون لـ هيومن رايتس ووتش إن السوريين العالقين على الحدود والذين يعيشون في القرى المجاورة، مثل عزاز، ينامون في الشوارع والحقول والمدارس.

أفاد عدد من عمال الإغاثة في تركيا أن السلطات التركية سمحت لجماعات إغاثة دولية مقرها في تركيا بالعبور إلى سوريا والانضمام إلى جماعات إغاثة سورية لتوزيع الخيام وغيرها من المساعدات على السوريين العالقين في المعبر الحدودي والمناطق الحدودية المجاورة.

قالالرئيس التركي رجب طيب أردوغان في 6 فبراير/شباط: "إذا وصل السوريون إلى أبوابنا وليس أمامهم أي خيار آخر، فعلينا أن نسمح لإخواننا بالدخول". قالتوكالة الامم المتحدة للاجئين إن على تركيا فتح حدودها لجميع المدنيين السوريين الفارين من الخطر، والمحتاجين لحماية دولية".

قالت هيومن رايتس ووتش إن السماح بوصول المساعدات الضرورية جدا لا يُعفي تركيا من التزامها باحترام مبدأ عدم الإعادة القسرية. يحظر هذا المبدأ المكفول في القانون الدولي العرفي والقانون الدولي لحقوق الإنسان طرد طالبي اللجوء عند الحدود إن كان ذلك يُعرضهم لخطر الاضطهاد والتعذيب.

أشارت تركيا في وقت سابق إلى أنها تريد إنشاء "منطقة آمنة"في سوريا يستطيع السوريون الهروب إليها، ويمكن لتركيا إعادة اللاجئين السوريين إليها. قال الرئيس أردوغان في يوليو/تموز 2015 إن "تطهير المنطقة من كافة العناصر التي تشكل تهديدا، وإنشاء منطقة آمنة يشكل أساسا لعودة 1.7 مليون لاجئ سوري". قال وزير الخارجية تشاووش أوغلو في الشهر نفسه: "عندما يتم تخليص مناطق شمال سوريا من خطر [داعش]، سوف تُملأ المناطق الآمنة بشكل طبيعي ... ويمكن نقل الناس الذين نزحوا في تلك المناطق الآمنة".

قالت هيومن رايتس ووتش إن رغبة تركيا في تحديد عدد اللاجئين قد تكون مفهومة، ولكن الوضع الحالي في شمال سوريا يُبرز أن أي "منطقة آمنة"ستكون آمنة بالاسم فقط، وستعرّض حياة النازحين للخطر.

أغلقت تركيا حدودها أمام السوريين الفارين من النزاع منذ أوائل 2015، فصاروا مضطرين للاستعانة بالمهربين لدخول تركيا. وثّقت هيومن رايتس ووتش أواخر 2015 اعتراض حرس الحدود التركي لسوريين عبروا إلى تركيا باستخدام مهربين، وضربوهم في بعض الحالات، وأعادوهم مع عشرات الآخرين إلى سوريا، أو اعتقلوهم ثم طردوهم دون إجراءات قضائية.

قال زعماء الاتحاد الأوروبي، بما في ذلك الممثل السامي للاتحاد الأوروبي فيديريكا موغيريني، إن على تركيا السماح للسوريين الفارين من حلب بالوصول إلى بر الأمان. أبرم الاتحاد الأوروبي في نوفمبر/تشرين الثاني صفقة هجرة مثيرة للجدل مع أنقرة للحد من تدفق المهاجرين على أوروبا، وقدّم لها 3 مليارات يورو لمساعدة السوريين في تركيا، وأعاد إحياء مفاوضات انضمام تركيا إلى الاتحاد الاوروبي، ودخول المواطنين الأتراك بدون تأشيرة. دعا بعض القادة الأوروبيين أيضا إلى خطة تدرس تركيا بموجبها جميع طلبات لجوء الذين يريدون الوصول إلى الاتحاد الأوروبي، مقابل تعهد دول الاتحاد بإعادة توطين بضع مئات من ألاف اللاجئين على مدى فترة غير محددة.

قال جيري سيمبسون:"الاتحاد الأوروبي محقّ في الضغط على أنقرة لتُبقي حدودها مفتوحة أمام اللاجئين. ولكن عليه العمل بالمثل والتأكد من ضمان وفاء حكومات الاتحاد الأوروبي بالتزاماتها لاستضافة طالبي اللجوء ومعالجة طلباتهم، وليس استخدام اتفاق الهجرة في محاولة لإلقاء المسؤولية على تركيا".

• English

سوريون وصلوا إلى مخيم للنازحين في ضواحي بلدة عزاز، 5 كلم جنوب باب السلام ومعبر أنجوبينار التركي المغلق، 6 فبراير/شباط 2016.

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• العربية

European policymakers have been burning the midnight oil looking for ways to keep Syrian and other refugees and migrants from reaching Greece and swelling the ranks of asylum seekers in the European Union.

The Nato operation announced on 11 February may perhaps serve this purpose, but raises the question of whether stemming the flow will, in effect, mean collective expulsions that deny the right to seek asylum.

Des familles de réfugiés et de migrants au large de la côte ouest de la Turquie, non loin du village de Cesme, avancent vers des canots pneumatiques le 4 novembre 2015, afin de rejoindre l'île grecque de Chios en mer Egée.

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(Brussels) – The European Union deal with Turkey is a flawed and potentially dangerous policy response to refugee flows across the Aegean Sea. EU and Turkish leaders will meet in Brussels on March 7, 2016, to discuss implementation of a joint action plan that the EU hopes will limit migration and refugee flows from Turkey to Greece.

Human Rights Watch issued a question-and-answer document today, including details about why Turkey should not be considered a safe country of asylum.

“EU leaders are in a panic to stop refugee flows before spring, and they seem willing to throw human rights overboard in the process,” said Judith Sunderland, acting deputy director for the Europe and Central Asia division of Human Rights Watch. “It is naked self-interest and wishful thinking to say Turkey is a safe country of asylum – it is not, and this deal could cause much more harm than good.”

The EU and Turkey signed the controversial deal in November 2015. The EU pledged €3 billion and political concessions to Turkey, in exchange for stepped up efforts to curb migration and refugee flows to Europe. The EU is eager for Turkey to crack down on boat departures from its coastline; an average of 2,500 people have made the crossing every day since the deal was struck. The €3 billion should be used to improve access to health care, education, and other basic services for more than 2 million Syrian refugees already in Turkey.

Turkey does not meet the two most basic conditions for a safe country of asylum, Human Rights Watch said. It does not provide effective protection for refugees and has repeatedly pushed asylum seekers back to Syria. Turkey has ratified the 1951 Refugee Convention, but is the only country in the world to apply a geographical limitation so that only Europeans can get refugee status there.

While Turkey has been generous to Syrians, hosting more than 2 million refugees under a temporary protection regime, Syrians in Turkey face continuing barriers to employment and education. Turkey recently granted Syrians with temporary protection the right to work under certain conditions. Most other refugees, including Iraqis, Afghans, and Iranians, have even less legal protection in Turkey.

Significantly increasing refugee resettlement from Turkey could offer a credible alternative to smugglers and deadly boat crossings, Human Rights Watch said. Various proposals have stalled, however, and the EU has a generally poor record on resettlement. By mid-January 2016, fewer than 800 people had been brought to Europe under a 2015 commitment by EU governments to resettle 22,500 refugees from various regions over the next two years.

The EU-Turkey summit comes as tensions mount along EU and Western Balkan borders. An estimated 11,000 migrants and asylum seekers are blocked at the Greece-Macedonia border because of discriminatory border restrictions. Thousands more are stranded in Athens and on Greek islands, in an ever-deepening humanitarian crisis. In a belated but positive move, the European Commission proposed on March 2 an emergency fund of €700 million to help Greece and other countries manage the influx over the next three years.

More than 1 million migrants and asylum seekers reached EU shores in 2015, while more than 130,000 have crossed the Mediterranean so far in 2016. The vast majority have crossed the Aegean Sea from Turkey to Greece. More than 400 women, men, and children have died or been reported missing in the Mediterranean since January 1. The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees says that 90 percent of those arriving since the beginning of 2016 are from three of the world’s top refugee-producing countries: Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq.

“The EU should demonstrate global leadership, collective action, and solidarity with refugees,” Sunderland said. “Improving capacity in countries like Turkey to provide effective protection to refugees is a laudable long-term goal, but it’s no substitute for sharing responsibility for fairly processing and humanely hosting asylum seekers in the midst of a global displacement crisis.”

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