Reasons For Leaving Turkey..Refugees Fear The Turkish Opposition

The past few days have witnessed the influx of thousands of Syrian refugees from Turkey to Europe in general and Germany in particular. This is the largest wave since 2015 after European countries took strict measures on their eastern borders and supported Greece in stopping the flow of refugees.

 The German newspaper “Tags Spiegel” reported in a recent report that more than 3,200 refugees, most of them Syrians, have been documented entering Greece from the beginning of the year until the beginning of this August, “as Greece is a major stop for migrants in order to reach their goal of reaching the rest of the European Union countries.” “.

It is known that large numbers of migrants enter Greece through smuggling on a daily basis and are not documented, and then go to the rest of Europe, especially Germany, despite attempts to prevent them by the Greek authorities, who often return them to Turkey.

Migrants’ way

Most of the Syrian refugees follow the Turkey-Bulgaria-Serbia route, or the Turkey-Greece-Serbia route.

Ahmed Salem, who arrived at the beginning of this week in the German city of Stuttgart, stated that he and a group of 30 young men took the Bulgaria-Serbia route, where the road took 3 days with a smuggler, and then headed to Hungary, passing through Slovakia, then Austria, to Germany.

Ahmed from Deir ez-Zor Governorate, indicated that the road is not always easy, explaining that his cousin was seriously injured on a trip with another group after the police fired dogs on him, not to mention the long distances from walking in the forests and the cold weather after sunset, and sleeping on the ground In the woods for several days.

Ahmed pointed out that he paid the smuggler 7000 thousand dollars in order to deliver him to Europe through Turkey, Greece and Serbia, stressing that the high prices in Turkey and the fear of the upcoming elections pushed him to emigrate.

For his part, Samer Mahran (one of those who arrived in Germany from Turkey) said that the Greek-Serbia road is better than the Bulgarian road, because it does not have a “Dublin fingerprint”, and dogs are not released to migrants, but it is long and arduous, and it is the most difficult thing to reach the city of Greek Thessaloniki.

He continued, “The road is divided according to the refugee’s physical condition, as there is a long road and requires less money than the short road.“

Reasons for the emigration of Syrians from Turkey

Dr. Abdel Nasser Al-Jassem, Professor of Economics at Mardin University in Turkey, believes that the most important reasons for the migration of Syrians from Turkey to Europe are: that Syrians live in Turkey in a state of fear and instability after voices were raised about returning Syrians in Turkey to Syria.

Al-Jassem added that the Syrians do not hold refugee status in Turkey, but rather “temporary protection.” The feeling of fear came after the statements issued by the Turkish government and its officials, as these statements raised the concern of the Syrians because they are no longer rumors.

Dr. Al-Jassem added another important reason, which is the approaching date of the Turkish elections and the lack of clear programs by the opposition parties, so they found an opportunity to compensate for the weakness of their political program in the file of Syrian refugees in Turkey. Harassment and restraint of Syrians, some of these behaviors amounted to bullying and racism.

He stressed that these actions led the Syrian refugee in Turkey to search for a way out, pointing out that there is an important factor that pushes Syrians to migrate from Turkey, which is the lack of trust in opposition institutions and the unclear role of these institutions, which does not represent the aspirations and issues of Syrians, which prompted them to migrate to European countries.

Al-Jassem indicated that the economic factor is also one of the important reasons for the migration of Syrians from Turkey, after the world witnessed the consequences of the Corona pandemic and an economic downturn, the Syrian refugee no longer has enough purchasing power with the crazy rise in food and housing prices, in addition to restricting the movement of Syrian refugees.

Article written by:

Muhammad Sheikh Ali