Damascus -

After his work in electronic design declined, the 19-year-old Syrian youth - from the Damascus countryside - decided to immigrate to Turkey, especially after he became wanted for compulsory service in the army.

Muhammad told Al Jazeera Net, "For months, I have not left my area for fear of being caught at one of the military checkpoints and being dragged into mandatory service," but he communicated with his friends in Istanbul and they encouraged him to immigrate to it, "In Turkey, you can work and sleep in one place, and provide some funds necessary to migrate towards Europe." According to him.

Compulsory service is considered a major reason - in addition to unemployment and the high cost of living - in the migration of thousands of young men per month from regime-controlled areas to neighboring countries such as Lebanon, Iraq and Turkey.

Like designer Muhammad, 21-year-old Ayman, a student at the Faculty of Engineering at Damascus University, is facing increasing pressures to secure his daily expenses, which is pushing him to search for a way to emigrate outside the country.

"A few months ago, I could not buy even a cup of tea from the university canteen," Ayman says.

The young man was working 6 hours a day in a restaurant, with a weekly salary of 80,000 Syrian pounds (22 dollars), which is not enough for his expenses for a week. On the pretext that we own a 2009 model car."

Scenes from the roads and outskirts of the city of Damascus (Al-Jazeera)

The most important immigration destinations

Syrians in regime-controlled areas have been suffering - since the beginning of this year - from the aggravation of living crises as a result of the deteriorating economic conditions, which pushes thousands to search for ways to migrate, and Turkey shows the border state with Syria as one of the most important destinations for thousands of Syrians to migrate.

Last Thursday, Turkish Interior Minister Suleiman Soylu indicated - during a press conference in the capital, Ankara - that a large part of the Syrians who are currently trying to come to Turkey are from the areas surrounding Damascus, and linked this to the economic crisis in Syria.

Soylu also revealed that the number of Syrians who obtained Turkish citizenship until the end of last year amounted to more than 193,000.

What are the reasons that push Syrians in Damascus and its countryside to migrate to Turkey?

And what paths do they take?

What is the total cost of this irregular migration?


youth migration

Since the beginning of February, the regime's government has started to lift support for groups of Syrian society that it considers the least in need, with the aim of delivering support to the most deserving groups, it said, which led to the exclusion of a large segment of families from aid in its areas of control.

The government decision coincided with a wave of high prices for most of the main food and consumer goods as a result of the deterioration in the exchange rate of the Syrian pound against foreign currencies, while the cities of the capital, Damascus, and its countryside are witnessing the longest time rationing of electricity since the beginning of the economic crisis in the country in 2011.

This negatively affected industrialists, craftsmen, business owners and shops, as well as students and youth, whose studies and work became mostly linked to computers and the Internet.

The Syrian economy has witnessed an accelerated collapse since 2011, as the inflation rate reached 163.1% in 2020, and it is expected to increase this year by about 12%, while the Syrian pound has lost a lot of its value, so that one dollar has been sold for 3,600 pounds since the beginning of this year.

Syrians displaced from Eastern Ghouta in Damascus countryside in a shelter center (European)

Whole families

In addition to young people, who constitute the largest segment of immigrants, many Syrian families in Damascus and its countryside seek to migrate to Turkey after the deterioration of living conditions.

The family of Haj Sobhi, 57, who is displaced from the countryside of Hasakah to the Damascus countryside, is one of the families who began seriously planning to travel to the city of Gaziantep in Turkey, where their children have settled for years.

Sobhi told Al Jazeera Net, "It is no longer acceptable to disregard our basic needs in this way. There is no electricity, no water, no fuel, no price stability, and no signs of improvement, so why should we stay?"

He added, "My son, who lives in Gaziantep, has contacted a smuggler in Idlib, and he will try to secure us on a nearby trip until I can sell my house in al-Hasakah and secure the cost of transporting me, my wife and my three children."

While being transported safely from Syria to Turkey, Haj Sobhi and his family to Turkey will cost $6,500, he estimates.


smuggling and dangers

Human smuggling networks spread throughout the Syrian territories, and are mainly active in the governorates of Aleppo and Idlib, and to a lesser extent in Hasaka, where the passable border crossings between Syria and Turkey are located.

One of the active smugglers on the border strip connecting the village of Atma (in the northern countryside of Idlib) and the Turkish border - he refused to reveal his name - told Al Jazeera Net, "I make trips to Turkey daily, and the costs vary between families that include women and children and between young people, and the trip costs 850 dollars per young man. and $1,200 for each family member.

He added, "As for those wishing to migrate from the rest of the Syrian provinces," trips to Aleppo are organized through the military lines. Later, we will receive the passengers and take them to the liberated areas and then to the border crossing at Atma, where they walk 600 meters, after which attempts to cross the border with Turkey begin. The cost of these trips is $1,500 per person,” according to the smuggler.

Migrants are transported from regime-controlled areas to opposition-controlled areas through private cars that guarantee safe passage to military checkpoints, whether affiliated with the regime, the opposition or other forces, according to the smuggler.

However, a report by the Violations Documentation Center in northern Syria revealed that the number of Syrian refugees who were killed by Turkish security bullets had risen to 525 people - including 101 children and 67 women - as of February 21 this year.

Syrian refugees in Turkey are waiting for the war to end and return to their country (Reuters)

Anti spatial focus

This risky emigration comes despite the escalation of rhetoric rejecting their presence in Turkey by the opposition parties, while the Turkish government seeks to implement what has been termed "reducing the concentration of foreigners."

The plan is to prevent Syrians or foreigners from exceeding 25% of the population in the neighborhoods of Turkish cities, with the aim of preventing social disintegration and solving security problems.

In a related context, Ismail Çatakli, Deputy Minister of the Interior of Turkey, told the media last Thursday that the aim of the new plan is to better integrate immigrants.

Çatakli explained that males constitute the largest proportion of the Syrians displaced to Turkey due to the economic conditions, and therefore temporary protection will not be provided to Syrians once they apply for it, but each applicant's need for protection will be confirmed in advance.

He stressed that he would not allow "economic migration" from Syria, especially from Damascus and its environs.

The number of Syrian refugees in Turkey is about 3,741,000, according to the statistics of the General Directorate of the Turkish Immigration Presidency in 2022, including 535,000 refugees residing in Istanbul alone, followed by Gaziantep, Hatay, and Şanlıurfa.

A United Nations report stated that hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees need resettlement because there are no opportunities for voluntary return.

The report indicated that Turkey is the host country with the greatest needs around the world for 2022.