GAZIANTEP, Turkey -- An agreement between the European Union and Turkey to halt the flow of asylum seekers and other migrants to the continent has all but shuttered the Turkey-to-Greece smuggling gateway.
For Syrians who made it only as far as southern Turkey, the future looks bleak.
Rights groups and aid workers say Turkish authorities have subjected the migrants to arbitrary detentions and deportations. After fleeing hardship in their countries of origin, others have found it a struggle to scrape by.
Many -- such as Hussein Taysoun, a 34-year-old who is one of nearly 3 million Syrians offered refuge in Turkey -- now feel they missed their chance.
"It's like we have no more options left -- except to suffer," said Taysoun, who arrived in Gaziantep, a city near the border with Syria, three years ago and supports his family by working in construction.
Like the vast majority of Syrians in Turkey, Taysoun lacks a formal work permit, increasing his chances of being exploited by employers, rights groups say. Freelance construction pays $15 per day -- that is, he said, if he can land a job and if contractors actually pay. He hasn't found work in weeks, forcing him to consider moving back to his war-torn country.
"Syria is cheap," he said.
In his dimly lighted basement apartment of cinder-block walls, Taysoun said he regretted that he did not join the more than 1 million people smuggled on dinghies to Greek islands in the past year and a half.
Europe, he said, would afford his family possibilities. Jobs. Education. Hope.
But he had hesitated, fearing the perilous boat ride that has taken hundreds of lives. He also had trouble raising enough money for smuggling fees.
Now, that journey seems like a nonstarter.
Under the EU-Turkey deal, which was struck last month, migrants arriving in Greece by smuggling boat are escorted onto ferries and sent back to Turkey.
In exchange, Turkey receives billions of dollars and other incentives, including relaxed visa requirements for its citizens to travel to Europe and a resumption of talks to bring Turkey into the EU.
Observers say the agreement seems to have had the intended effect. The number of people attempting the journey from Turkey's coast has plummeted, and hundreds of mostly Afghans, Bangladeshis and Pakistanis have been returned to Turkey.
But Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and other rights groups have criticized the deal, accusing Turkish authorities of preventing rights workers and the United Nations from visiting facilities that hold refugees and migrants.
Turkey was already shouldering an incredible burden before the agreement, hosting nearly three times as many Syrian refugees as the number of migrants and asylum seekers who made their way to Europe over the past 15 months.
A senior Turkish official denied the allegations of abuse. He listed Turkish support for Syrians that includes special protections and a long list of humanitarian programs worth $10 billion.
"Unfortunately, the international community, including U.N. agencies, contributed less than $500 million" for Syrians in Turkey, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he lacked the authorization to discuss the topic publicly.
Still, Qusay Suleibi worries that Turkish patience has run thin. The 25-year-old recalled wanting to go to Europe, but his family back in Syria urged him to stay put in southern Turkey. They would eventually be reunited in Turkey, or so he thought.
In recent months, Turkey started requiring visas for Syrians and blocking most entries, including Suleibi's mother and siblings. "I'm not sure what I can do now, because I can't go back to Palmyra," he said of his hometown, which he fled after Islamic State militants stormed it last year. Although the Syrian government has reclaimed the city, he has no desire to return.
But he said he might move his family to camps for internally displaced Syrians back across the border.
Prevented from entering Turkey, tens of thousands of Syrians have crammed into the camps, where they receive support from aid groups but have faced attacks by the Islamic State.
But residents don't pay rent, Taysoun pointed out.
"Right now, I have to focus on how to feed my children," he said.
A Section on 04/27/2016