Human rights groups sound alarm over safe zones for Syrian refugees

·         Areas established for geopolitical goals may put refugees in danger, aid workers and rights groups warn

·         Setting up refugee “safe zones” on the Syrian side of the Turkey-Syria border and refusing to allow those fleeing the conflict to seek international protection could be a violation of international law and put vulnerable people at risk, human rights groups and aid workers have warned.

·         While Turkey long maintained an open-border policy with Syria, the country has recently adopted a restrictive stance, militarising the border and allowing only authorized traders, aid organizations, and those with life-threatening injuries to cross, leaving Syrians stranded in a conflict zone.

·         The UN puts the current number of displaced people trapped in the region around Azaz, a city four miles from the Turkish border, at around 250,000, more than half of whom live in nine refugee camps. The camps have been raided for provisions by armed groups and at times been less than two miles from Isis positions.

·         EU member states could also become complicit, the rights groups and aid workers said, if the number of such camps grows. Under the highly controversial EU-Turkey migration deal, EU member states offered to “work with Turkey in any joint endeavour to improve humanitarian conditions inside Syria, in particular in certain areas near the Turkish border which would allow for the local population and refugees to live in areas which will be more safe”.

·         Two further camps are under construction for Azaz, aid workers said, and more could be to come. The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, last month proposed the construction of a massive “refugee city” in northern Syria, complete with all necessary infrastructure and built-in cooperation with the international community.

·         Turkey has long pushed for a safe zone at its border, but in a region that has suffered from extreme violence, indiscriminate bombing and fighting between an array of local and international actors for years, the promise of “more safety” hardly spells security for people on the ground.

·         “Such ‘safe zones’ are often established with geopolitical, and not humanitarian, goals,” said Bill Frelick, refugee rights director at Human Rights Watch. “But this means using vulnerable civilians like pawns on a chess board.

·         “Calling an area ‘safe’ does not make it so. A safe zone in name only will put people in need of protection in the way of danger.”

·         Abdulsalam Al-Shareef, management consultant at the Turkey-based Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH), maintained that the refugee camps around Azaz were safe for those living there. “Geographically, these camps are almost impossible to attack from the air without entering Turkish airspace. In five years, we have never witnessed an incident.”

·         However, fighter jets are far from being the only danger. Experts warn that a safe zone imposed without the consent of all warring factions will make it a target and that barrel bombs can be dropped from helicopters. Demilitarization, one of the main principles of a “safety zone” according to the Geneva conventions, seems near impossible as numerous armed groups vie for supremacy.

·         Constantly shifting frontlines make it difficult for anyone, including those providing aid, to navigate the area. The easternmost Ekdah camp, sheltering around 500 households, was at times just under two miles from Isis frontlines, according to one aid coordinator. To the west, the Syrian-Kurdish People’s Defense Units (YPG), have recently gained ground, bringing the fighting closer to Azaz and the refugee camps.

·         Armed militia, themselves displaced, have forcibly taken tents and provisions from others to cater to their own needs and that of their families.

·         “Everyone is very scared,” said Rama, 19, whose family fled to Gaziantep in Turkey four years ago but who still has relatives in Azaz. Over a WhatsApp group, she closely monitors the developments in the town. “People are locked in between Isis and [the Kurdish militias]. They cannot go south, because Assad and Russia have cut off the road to Aleppo.”

·         Ahmad, an aid worker affiliated with a humanitarian organization active in the region, underlined that the situation has badly deteriorated since late January, when Syrian government forces, backed by Russian airstrikes, began a military offensive in northern Syria. Around 35,000 people fled to the Turkish border – only to find the gates closed.

·         For three days they slept at the Öncüpinar crossing before aid organizations steered them towards camps set up inside Syria. Due to ongoing clashes on all sides, more arrive almost every day. Recent gains of joint Sunni opposition militia against Isis around Al Rai uprooted thousands more.

·         “The camps are now filled beyond capacity,” Ahmad said. “Many people sleep in schools, ruins and construction sites, shops and warehouses, wherever they can find shelter.”

·         In the overcrowded camps and spontaneously erected collective centers dotting the border region, aid groups struggle to maintain basic standards of hygiene and safety.

·         “On average, 125 people have to share one toilet,” Ahmad explained. “And women often don’t dare to use them at all, for fear of sexual violence.” He added that the provision of medical care was “not yet catastrophic” but close to breaking point.

·         Due to Ankara’s policy of only admitting those with life-threatening trauma injuries, some Syrians with critical health conditions resort to self-harm to be able to receive treatment in Turkey. “One man suffering from hepatitis shot himself to get help,” Ahmad said.

·         Andrew Gardner, Turkey researcher for Amnesty International, said that Turkey, a country that houses 2.7 million Syrians refugees, should not have to shoulder the burden alone.

·         He underlined that the EU’s refugee policies created a disastrous knock-on effect: “If Europe would open its borders and secure safe resettlement of refugees, pressure on Turkey would also decrease, and make it easier for the country to open its borders for the people currently stuck in Syria and in dire need of protection.”