BALADI NEWS
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said the government plans to send up to 2 million refugees back to Syria. Human rights groups have warned of possible expulsions of refugees.
Many Syrian refugees in Turkey want to stay in the country although Turkey plans to send them back home.
Many of the refugees have started new lives in Turkey and see no reason to return to Syria.
Syrian refugee Isam Abdi owns Mandy, a restaurant in Istanbul. It has been serving people in the Turkish city for more than six years. "We will not return to Syria,” Abdi told VOA.
Abdi left Syria at the start of the civil war. He arrived in Istanbul speaking very little Turkish and having no contacts. But he was still able to build a successful business. He now owns two restaurants. His children attend college and he sees Turkey as the only country offering his family a better future.
"Because of the war, it's not safe there," Abdi said of his Syrian homeland. "They say in Damascus it is safe. But (there) is no electric, no gas, no nothing... It is easier to live here.”
Turkey has accepted more than 3.5 million Syrian refugees who fled the war. The refugees are expected to return to what Turkey considers a safe area in Syria. The area was taken by Turkish forces in an operation against a Kurdish militia.
Last month, an Amnesty International report accused Turkey of forcing refugees back to Syria this year. "It is likely that hundreds of people across Turkey were swept up, detained and transported against their will to one of the world's most dangerous countries," the report said.
Turkey’s foreign ministry denied the accusations. "The claims in the report about Syrians being forcibly sent back, threatened and mistreated are false and imaginary," a ministry spokesman said.
Turkish officials have said all Syrian refugee returns will be voluntary and observe all international laws. The government says more than 350,000 Syrian refugees have already voluntarily returned to their country.
Source: VOA.