The head of the Immigration Department of the Interior Ministry in Turkey, Suvas Unlu, said that his country has established “safe areas” in northern Syria, noting that nearly 500,000 Syrians have voluntarily returned to those areas.
This came in a speech delivered by Unlu during the session “The role of the international community in managing refugee flows: Syria and beyond” at the Doha Forum 2022, according to the Anadolu Agency.
While Turkey can prevent the refugee crisis by intervening directly in Syria before Russia intervenes in the country, Unlu said President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has long stressed the need to establish safe zones in Syria.
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“The EU and Turkey would have supported improving humanitarian conditions in the safe areas of northern Syria under the March 18th (on immigration) agreement between the two sides, but the EU has not fulfilled this commitment,” he said.
Developed countries were pursuing policies of repudiation and blaming the refugee crisis on developing and less developed countries neighboring the areas of clashes, in order to keep the flow of refugees away from their borders where security measures are taken.
Turkey hosts 3.7 million Syrian refugees, in addition to 300,000 from around the world.
Over the past few months, Turkey has witnessed security campaigns to arrest violators of Syrian and foreign nationals residing in Turkey.
This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
