Promise to send all Syrian refugees back irrational: Çavuşoğlu

ANKARA

Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu has stated that it is irrational to make a promise to send all Syrian refugees back to their homeland as they are needed for the workforce in the relevant sectors of Türkiye.

“If we say that we will send all of them 100 percent, it would not be appropriate. There is a need for employment in some jobs,” he said in a televised interview on May 21.

Noting that 550,000 Syrian migrants have been sent back to their country, Çavuşoğlu emphasized that this number was not enough and more migrants will be sent to their country.

“We need to send them not only to safe areas but also to places controlled by the regime. In other words, we need to send them to the cities they come from,” the minister said.

Stating that they will work on a roadmap for the safe return of migrants and the preparation of the infrastructure, Çavuşoğlu said, “They will return, we are determined, we will return them, but we have to do this in a way that befits human dignity.”

Emphasizing the need to prepare the infrastructure for return and to ensure life safety, the United Nations should be involved and the international community should support, Çavuşoğlu said, noting that such a roadmap was agreed upon.

Pointing out that necessary measures have been taken against illegal migrant crossings through the borders with Syria and Iran, Çavuşoğlu said, “On the other hand, we should not forget that all three sides of us are covered with seas.”

He stressed that it was necessary to think about how this issue should be managed. “You can’t say this with hate speech or populism. Yes, migrants came to Türkiye because of the civil war in Syria. They came from Afghanistan because of the situation there, through Iran… many Afghans.”

He reminded that Türkiye sends Afghans back to their country.