‘We fear leaving the house’: Lebanon and Turkey step up deportations of Syrian refugees

Syrians who fled the civil war, many of whom then lived in Şanlıurfa in south-eastern Turkey, return to Syria through the Akçakale border post in May. There was a rise in nationalist and anti-refugee sentiment in Turkey during the recent election won by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Photograph: Dia/Getty

It took a decade in Lebanon for Fady* and his brother Mohannad* to build up their lives, longing to return to their home in the Syrian countryside but accepting they would not be safe if they did. Both found jobs repairing air-conditioning systems, got married and started families. They had grown used to being questioned by police, but having never had any legal problems, they believed they were safe.

After Mohannad, 39, was arrested in April during a raid on a refugee camp, Fady was not too worried at first. “We thought it would be just like every other time: they would ask him questions, he would answer them, and they would send him back,” he says.