Erdoğan calls on Europe to take in more Syrian refugees

The Turkish president has asked Europe to welcome more of the 3 million refugees currently living in Turkey, as the main group campaigning to take Britain out of the EU suggested that higher levels of immigration from Turkey could pose a security risk if the country is admitted to the EU.

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Sunday that Europe was not doing enough to shoulder the refugee burden in Turkey, which now holds more refugees than any other country in the world.

Erdoğan’s remarks on migration may unknowingly fan the flames of an ongoing debate in Britain, where one of the campaigns calling for Brexit claimed the UK faced a huge influx of Turkish immigrants if Britain continued its membership of the union and Turkey was allowed to join it, The Guardian reported.

Writing in the Guardian, Erdoğan drew British readers’ attention to a different kind of migration flow from Turkey – that of Syrian refugees. Turkey expects western countries such as Britain to step up the formal resettlement of Syrians on Turkish soil, particularly after Turkey agreed in March to readmit all asylum seekers arriving by sea to Greek shores.

“As the Syrian war enters its sixth year, we are calling on the world to rise to the challenge and create a fair mechanism for sharing the burden,” Erdoğan wrote.

“To keep illegal immigration under control, Europe and Turkey must work together to create legal mechanisms, such as the March 2016 agreement, for the resettlement of Syrian refugees. By rewarding refugees who play by the rules and making it clear that illegal immigrants will be sent back to Turkey, we can persuade refugees to avoid risking their lives at sea.”

Erdoğan’s office would not be drawn into how many Syrians he hopes the west will welcome. But a Turkish diplomat separately told the Guardian last week that Turkey was hoping for as many as half a million people.

Speaking at a migration conference in Istanbul, Esen Altuğ, Turkey’s deputy director for migration, asylum and visas, said: “There are 3 million already now in Turkey. Until now, 2,000 have been taken by the Canadians. But unfortunately, from European countries, the number is very, very low. So we want something like 500,000 . As a voluntary programme, of course – these Syrians families should want to go to Europe.”