In death, Syrian refugees make final journey home
STORY: They dreamed of returning home to Syria but never made it alive.
Syrian refugees arrived at the Turkish border in body bags en route to their war-ravaged homeland.
They fled Syria's war only to die among many thousands of others in the earthquake that struck southern Turkey and northern Syria this week.
Ossama Abdulrazzaq pulled his sister's body from the rubble in the Turkish city of Antakya.
"She was pregnant in her final month. She was supposed to give birth in two days. She was supposed to go into labour. We pulled her out of the rubble and her children are still under the rubble."
Relatives clutched paperwork issued by local authorities on Wednesday (February 8).
It will admit the dead into Aleppo province but not their living relatives.
Across the border, family members will pick up their loved ones and take them for burial.
Hussein Ghandoura's 16-year-old son Mohammad is on the truck.
"I just said goodbye to him before his final journey," he says.
Turkey's Cilvegozu border-crossing has been closed to regular traffic since Syria's conflict began 12 years ago.
It so far remains closed even to aid operations.
But Turkish authorities were allowing bodies certified by Turkish hospitals to cross into northern Syria, much of which is held by rebel forces opposed to the Damascus government.
