Turkey calls for international community to uphold its refugee pledges

Turkey’s Deputy Foreign Minister Naci Koru called on the countries that had pledged to resettle Syrian refugees to live up to their promises.

“We listened in the conference to the promises made by various countries to resettle refugees into their land, but with time these promises have not been fulfilled,” Koru told the Anadolu Agency following a UN conference in Geneva.

“We hope that the resettlement of Syrians into neighbouring countries takes place in a regular way, and we will continue with our efforts in this regard,” he added.

Koru also noted that there are more than 2.7 million Syrians in Turkey.

He said that the decline in the flow of refugees and immigrants from Turkey to Greece through the Aegean Sea comes following the Turkish-EU agreement over the refugee crisis. “In previous months, between 4,000 and 5,000 persons crossed [the sea into Greece] daily. This number decreased to 2,100 persons two months ago, then to 1,900 persons last month and finally to 900 persons this month.”

The Turkish-EU agreement for the resettlement of illegal immigrants came into effect on 20 March. The agreement stipulates that every immigrant coming to the EU from Turkey would be returned to Turkey and in return, Turkey would send a Syrian refugee living on its land to the EU.