Turkey 'shoots down Russian warplane on Syria border'

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23. Turkey has ‘all but closed its borders’ to Syrian refugees, HRW says

Turkey has "all but closed its borders" to Syrian refugees, many of whom say they have been beaten, detained and expelled by Turkish border guards while trying to escape the devastating civil war that has sent millions fleeing Syria, nongovernmental organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Monday.

The U.N. refugee agency says Turkey has registered more than 2 million Syrians as refugees since the conflict began nearly five years ago. Although traffickers have continued to help refugees cross into Turkey through smuggling routes, HRW said Monday that Ankara had stepped up border enforcement at unofficial crossing points in July after closing its last two official crossings in March of this year to all but those with urgent medical needs.

Those official crossings have not been re-opened, HRW said, citing "nongovernmental agencies in Turkey close to the Syrian border."

"Turkey’s border closure is forcing pregnant women, children, the elderly, the sick, and the injured to run the gauntlet of Turkish border officials to escape the horrors of Syria’s war," HRW’s Gerry Simpson, a senior refugee researcher, said in a statement issued by the group.

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/11/23/turkey-closes-borders-to-syrian-refugees-hrw-says.html