- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has expressed concern that underdeveloped countries shelter more than twice as many refugees as developed countries, blaming them for having used the global refugee crisis for advertising purposes.){kind=link}
Ankara (The Times Groupe)- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has expressed concern that underdeveloped countries shelter more than twice as many refugees as developed countries, blaming them for having used the global refugee crisis for advertising purposes.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan says developed nations are hosting 2.7 refugees per 1,000.
According to United Nations figures, high-income countries host 2.7 refugees per 1,000 people, while middle- and low-income countries host 5.8 refugees. In a video message for the Global Parliamentary Conference on Migration on June 20, Erdoan said that those who use refugees as advertising material bear no responsibility for the deepening humanitarian crisis.
Turkey welcomed 3.6 million Syrian refugees fleeing the conflict in Syria and did not reject anyone who crossed its border because of their ethnicity, religion, culture, disposition, or sect, Erdogan declared “We are the country that has been hosting the most refugees in the world for the last seven years,” he said.
“We have opened our doors to millions of people who have been persecuted in the last 500 years, especially the Jews who fled the Inquisition. Our brothers in the Caucasus and our compatriots in the Balkans always took refuge in Turkey as a safe harbor when they were in trouble,” he noted.
The COVID19 pandemic has forced more people to leave their homes as a result of economic problems, Erdogan stated, noting that the number of migrants worldwide has reached 275 million, the number of displaced persons is approaching 85 million, and the number of refugees is close to 30 million.
Erdogan also criticized Greece for “persecuting, robbing and even murdering” refugees and said Turkey bears the real burden of the problem.
“Almost every day, we witness the plight of refugees who were persecuted, robbed, beaten, or even murdered by the Greek security forces. In fact, countries like us, which are neighbors to crisis areas, bear the real burden on the issue of migration and refugees, not developed societies that have a loud voice,” he said.
The whereabouts of tens of thousands of Syrian children “who took refuge in Europe, who were abducted, and what their fate” was are unknown, Erdogan noted, since nearly 30,000 refugees, mostly women and children, died in the Mediterranean in recent years.
President Erdogan congratulated all the institutions that supported and contributed to the conference, expressing his pleasure to host parliamentarians in Istanbul, the crossroads of civilizations.
Parliamentarians with different political systems and ideas benefit from the Inter-Parliamentary Union, the president said.
In addition to allowing parliamentarians, who represent our people, to share their views and experiences, the union also contributes to the development of solutions to global problems, he said.
In his address at the conference, Parliament Speaker Mustafa Şentop said the phenomenon of irregular and forced migration has become a global problem. “The issue of migration is an issue that shows us that the destiny and future of all humanity are common,” he stated.