Syrian immigrant ‘child couple’ detained in Turkey

ŞANLIURFA – Doğan News Agency

DHA Photo

Two Syrian children, who fled to Turkey with their families from the war-torn Syrian city of Aleppo last year, were detained in Turkey after police were informed that their families had forced them to marry illegally.

V. C., a Syrian man, had made his 14-year-old son Y. C. marry his brother’s 13-year-old daughter, and marked the illegal marriage with a street ceremony in Turkey’s southeastern province of Şanlıurfa in which the minors wore wedding dresses.

Turkish neighbors, realizing that the “couple” were minors immediately alerted the police. Police arriving at the marriage ceremony detained the minors and their parents since marriage under 18 is illegal in Turkey and children over the age of 16 can only marry with their parents’ official permission.

The parents of Y. C., speaking with a translator’s help, said they did not know that marriage was forbidden for minors in Turkey since it was legal in Syria.

Upon the family’s police testimony, the officers informed the Ministry of Family and Social Policies’ Şanlıurfa provincial directorate. The officials applied to take the children under state protection in the framework of the law of foreigners. The child’s parents were released and the children were sent to the ministry’s home for children.