Refugees back to Syria war zone

started threatening to beat me if I didn’t. So I signed because I was afraid.”

Turkey had been the most welcoming of the neighbours, with president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan calling Syrians “their brothers in faith”. His open-door policy saw 3.6million flood in before the border was finally closed in 2015.

But anti-refugee sentiment has been growing in recent months, with many in the country blaming them for its economic downturn.

Two mayors have banned Syrians from using their cities’ public beaches and others have outlawed Arabic-language signs. It spiked during the local election, where many voters punished Mr Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) and voted for the Republican People’s Party (CHP), which used anti-Syrian rhetoric in its campaign.

Ekrem İmamoğlu, CHP’s candidate who became Istanbul’s mayor in June, said last week that refugees who were not registered to live in the city would have to return to their assigned provinces by Aug 20, but denied any deportations were taking place.

Rights groups, however, say more than 300 have already been sent back in contravention of international law on refoulement. Many in Istanbul said that they have stopped going out at night and no longer use public transport for fear of being caught.

Mr Abdullah, who had a job in a laundromat, was sent on a 18-hour bus ride on July 11 to the border province of Hatay, where he was registered. From there he was forced to cross into Syria.

“Turkey is a beautiful country, and I still do love and respect the people,” said Mr Abdullah, who is from the central Syrian city of Homs.

“But I feel disappointed by its politicians and how they used the refugees in their electoral campaign. I feel disgusted at how they triggered this hatred for us.”

Mr Abdullah, who joined the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, cannot return home to Homs as it is under the control of the government. He left after his disabled father was stabbed to death by Assad’s Shabiha.

He is now living on the floor of his friend’s house in the rebel-controlled town of Maaret al-Numan in Idlib province, which is being bombed daily by Syrian government and Russian

“The government officials still haven’t responded; they are just hiding,” said Mandy Cheng, 25, an office clerk, who takes the silence as a sign the movement could succeed.

By now the marches have been going long enough that forthcoming rallies are returning to the same neighbourhoods.

“See? Saturday, Mong Kok again!” one protester told The Telegraph as she scrolled through her phone to check the schedule.

In preparation for more unrest, the authorities this week tested armoured trucks equipped with water cannons.

China has tried to paint the protesters as unruly thugs and blamed Western nations, including the UK and the US, for sowing discord to weaken Beijing. The central government has also made clear it would deploy the military should Hong Kong authorities request reinforcements.

But none of that – including the threat of the People’s Liberation Army intervening, in a move that would be reminiscent of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown – seems enough to turn the movement back.

“What I know is that I am not used by any of these foreign forces, I come because I am a Hong Kong citizen,” said Monita Leung 60, an office worker. “I think the Chinese military is just trying to scare people from attending protests with the propaganda. I don’t think they will really do anything.”

Additional Reporting by Katy Wong jets. “I don’t know where I will go now, I don’t know what to do,” he said via WhatsApp. “I am not safe here, the airstrikes are round the clock. A few days ago, the planes targeted my neighbourhood and I only narrowly survived.”

Assad has promised to retake “every inch” of Syria, and Idlib, the last remaining opposition stronghold, is the only region standing in his way.

Failing to make much headway on the ground, the regime has been pummelling Idlib from the skies. More than 400 civilians have been killed since its offensive began in April and 440,000 have fled towards the Turkish border.

Some see the latest deportations as a consequence of the deal Turkey struck with the European Union in 2016, which saw the bloc give a €3billion (£2.7bn) payment to Ankara in exchange for its co-operation in stemming the flow of migrants.

“As Turkey continues to shelter more than half of registered Syrian refugees globally, the EU should be resettling Syrians from Turkey in Europe,” said Gerry Simpson, associate emergencies director at Human Rights Watch.