Palestinian refugee Samir Hasan Mohamed Aboud, born in 1970 and raised in Syria’s Yarmouk Camp, has been detained at the new Istanbul International Airport after he attempted to enter Turkey, fleeing economic hardship and persecution in Lebanon.

Samir holds a Palestinian-Authority-stamped passport.

His mother has appealed to the Turkish authorities, Palestinian embassy in Istanbul, and international human rights organizations to pressurize the concerned authorities to release Samir and grant him humanitarian asylum in the Turkish territories.

At the same time, the Syrian security forces arrested 17 Palestinian refugees in northern Syria as they attempted to illegally enter the Turkish borders.

The refugees fled AlSayeda Zeinab camp for Palestinian refugees, in Rif Dimashq, as they attempted to reach Turkey through borderlands in northern Syria, before they were caught on the Aleppo highway.

The list of arrestees includes seven members of a same family. They were all transferred to the Palestine Security Branch. No information has been revealed as to their condition and whereabouts.