Turkey Has Forcibly Returned Thousands of Refugees to Syria, Amnesty International Says

 Turkey’s government has forced thousands of Syrian refugees to return to their war-torn country in recent months, exposing the perils of an agreement that allows Greece to send refugees arriving by boat back to Turkey, Amnesty International said in a report issued Friday.

Amnesty, a human rights group that has its headquarters in London, said it had collected witness testimony in Turkey’s southern Hatay Province and found that the Turkish authorities had been “rounding up and expelling groups of around 100 Syrian men, women and children to Syria on a near-daily basis since mid-January.” Among the cases the group documented were three young children who were forced to return to Syria without their parents.

A Turkish government spokesman did not immediately return messages seeking comment. Turkey has previously denied forcibly returning refugees to Syria, which would be a violation of international law.

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