Hatay Assembly for the Right to Life Against War released its second report entitled "The impact of the Syrian War and Turkey’s Syria policies on Hatay." Assembly representatives held a press conference on the report in Halkevi’s Hatay Branch.

Hatay Assembly for the Right to Life Against War coordinator Ali Ergin shared the details of the report, which has statistical information prepared by official institutions and NGOs. Ergin stated that the repatriation centers in Hatay are being used as temporary residences for ISIS gangs that are preparing for attacks. Ergin recalled that the Commodity Exchange's Boys' Dormitory near the Sabancı Girls' Dormitory in Narlıca neighborhood of Hatay’s Antakya district was closed to students for the 2015-2016 education year with the excuse that the building was ‘frail and unusable.’ Ergin noted that Hatay Governorate authorized Hatay Directorate of Migration Management to use the building as a repatriation center for ‘illegal’ refugees lacking ‘temporary protection ID documents’ who are mostly foreign jihadists. Ergin stated that state officials knew about the organizational connections of these jihadists but sent them to other countries as opposed to launching criminal investigations. Ergin said that İbrahim Al Bakraoui, one of the perpetrators of the ISIS attack in the Belgian capital Brussels that claimed the lives of 33 civilians and wounded another 250 people on March 2, 2016, was processed in the repatriation center in Hatay and sent from Antep to the Netherlands in June 2015.

'TURKISH INTELLIGENCE AGENCY CONTROLS THE GANGS’ PASSAGE’

Ergin stated that Turkey’s policies towards the refugees and the gangs in Hatay could change from one day to another, and Syrian refugees lacked state protection. However, Ergin said that a Ministry of Interior Affairs employee called C.T. confirmed that ISIS members and other jihadist gangs were under the de-facto protection of the state. Ergin noted that when the Turkish state captures a gang, it either sends him to his home country or a third state. If the gang’s return to his home country is risky, the state usually chooses Ukraine, Malaysia and Jordan as the third state. Some gangs, however, are set free through the use of probation.

Ergin emphasized that the Turkish Intelligence Agency directly controls the gangs’ passage, and the gangs from East Turkistan who are Chinese citizens are given Turkish IDs and sent to Kayseri.

'REFUGEES ARE USED AS HUMAN SHIELDS FOR THE GANGS'

Ergin stated that the number of Syrian refugees in the city was 402 thousand according to Hatay Governorate and 386 thousand according to the Hatay Directorate of Migration Management. Ergin emphasized that the number of refugees that are not under ‘temporary protection’ is unknown, and many refugees who lacked temporary protection IDs were deported through Cilvegözü Border Gate. Ergin said that these deported refugees were used as human shields for Ahrar Al Sham and Al Nusra gangs, who control the Bab El-Hawa border gate across Cilvegözü.

In the report, sexual abuse and violence, informal employment with low wages, underage marriage as a second wife, sex work and participation in the criminal economy were listed as the main ways in which Syrian refugees were victimized in Hatay.

'DANGEROUS SOCIAL FAULT LINES EMERGE!

Lastly, Hatay Assembly for the Right to Life against War ended its report by pointing out that the deepening of the corruption in Hatay’s social and economic structures, the development of the criminal economy, the exclusion and humiliation of refugees, and the increasing contempt for the Syrian war and refugees in general unravel new and dangerous fault lines in the city.