Middle East & Africa | Not wanted here

Turkey is trying to deport Syrian refugees back to a war zone

Many Turks fear Syrian refugees will change the character of their country

Syrian refugee and his children pose at their house in the southwest of the city centre of Sanliurfa on April 28, 2023
Photograph: Getty Images
|ISTANBUL

For the past five years similar scenes have played out each day in Esenyurt, a district in Istanbul. Every few minutes police officers frogmarch a young man onto a bus. Esenyurt is home to one of the biggest communities of Syrians in Turkey. Across the country, the authorities are rounding up undocumented migrants. Over 34,600 Syrians have been caught this year; almost all will be deported back to the war zone.

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This article appeared in the Middle East & Africa section of the print edition under the headline “Not wanted here”

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