ICC Note:

As Syria enters its seventh year of civil war, civilians continue to flee. Men who were formerly farmers have switched career paths to become refugee smugglers as they are familiar with the fields, roads, and landscape. These refugees, including Christians, are willing to attempt the dangerous process to seek the possibility of safety.

3/23/2017 Syria (BBC) – “They wait until the fog sets in, limiting the visibility of the Turkish border guards, and then they run for their lives.”

Abdo, 31, is a people smuggler from a Syrian village near the northern city of Idlib.

Before the war he was a farmer, but now he makes his living helping Syrian refugees cross, illegally, into Turkey.

As the Syrian conflict enters its seventh year it is a journey that is becoming increasingly difficult and dangerous.

“The border guards are playing with people’s souls as they run through the fields trying to hide between the rocks,” Abdo says. “Many lives have been lost on these roads.”

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