Internal Security Forces talk about efforts to combat people smuggling

Mazloum Kajal, an administrator in the Organized Crime Office in the Internal Security Forces in the Euphrates Region, spoke about the issue of smuggling people across the border out of the regions of North and East Syria, which has recently come to the fore and occupied a space in the population’s conversation.

He said in a statement ANHA's agency: “We in the Internal Security Forces in all departments are trying to limit smuggling and stop smugglers, and we have been able to arrest a large number of them, as we receive a lot of information about smugglers. We track them down, confirm them, set up ambushes and arrest them whether at checkpoints or on the border. “By investigating them and bringing them to justice.”

Mazloum Kajal pointed out, “The number of smugglers we have arrested from the beginning of 2023 to this day has reached 208, and they have been handed over to justice, and the people who were arrested when they attempted to cross outside the border amounted to 1,674 people.”

He added: “The Euphrates region is located on the border with Turkey, and the people who are active in the field of smuggling are residents of the villages located on the border. They work as networks and groups with relationships among themselves. They have brokers in cities and villages who work for them to collect people who want to cross the border with forged personal identification cards.” The smugglers also establish relationships with individuals and leaders in the Turkish occupation army deployed in the border bases with Syria, who are seeking to empty the region of its population to facilitate a demographic change, and the majority of the target group are young people.”

Mazloum Kajal pointed out, “There are many risks in people smuggling operations. Some are subjected to beatings and torture by Turkish border guards when they cross the border, and there are also landmines planted along the border that threaten the lives of everyone who crosses the border, but there is leniency on the part of the Turkish side in front of this young people who want to cross borders that are largely open."

He explains, "The smugglers aim to make money by carrying out people-smuggling activities. The smugglers take from people $2,000 and more. Many of the smugglers share these amounts with Turkish officers, as there is coordination between the smugglers and the officers."

He confirms that they have information, and some confessions from the smugglers indicate that they handed over half of the amount received from the people to the Turkish officers.

T/ Satt.

ANHA