Parliamentary question about alleged torture, killing of refugees by border guards

Click to read the article in Turkish

Ahmet Şık, an MP with the Workers' Party of Turkey (TİP), has submitted a parliamentary question about the beating of eight refugees on the Turkey-Syria border. Two of the refugees were killed and two were seriously injured.

The Middle East Eye first reported the March 11 incident, citing one of the eight people and the groups controlling Syria's Bab al-Hawa border crossing, through which the refugees, including the killed ones, were deported. Two people who incurred serious injuries were put into intensive care in Syria.

In Turkey, the incident became a talking point after a bianet report on March 18. The lawyer who took up the case told bianet that prosecutors had opened a murder investigation against three gendarmerie officers. Two lieutenants and one first lieutenant were arrested but later released upon judicial control measures.

A soldier at the border post said in his statement to the prosecutors that he had heard the voices of refugees being beaten by officers in a vehicle after they were caught, said the lawyer.

In his motion, MP Şık asked Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu whether the allegations of torture and ill-treatment and the killing of refugees at the hand of the soldiers were accurate.

He also asked about the health of the other refugees and where they are kept right now.

The MP also asked the following questions:

"Are the allegations reported in the press that two lieutenants and one first lieutenant were arrested are correct?

"Does your ministry have any work regarding the prevention of torture?

"How many officers working in the law enforcement agencies of your ministry since 2016 have been investigated on charges of torture and ill-treatment, and how many have been punished?" (AS/VK)