“Help should be provided to these countries to prevent refugees leaving camps to attempt to come [to Europe],” Hollande said on Oct. 25 after a summit in Brussels on immigration.
Hollande said much more support needs to be provided to Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon to help them continue hosting the refugees.
“We have to act in urgency and prepare,” Hollande was quoted as saying by daily Libération, pointing to a possible exodus of Syrian refugees to Europe.
In order to prevent more tragedies such as the two boats that successively sunk in the Mediterranean off the Italian island of Lampedusa, Hollande said priority should be given to the situation in Libya.
More than 2 million refugees have fled Syria since the start of the conflict in March 2011. Turkey hosts over 500,000 refugees, mostly in camps or sheltering centers. According to the Turkish Foreign Ministry, 45,000 Syrian students have enrolled in Turkish schools and more than 5,000 babies have been born on Turkish soil.
In addition to the 2 million Syrians living as refugees, some 4.25 million people have been displaced within the devastated country, according to U.N. figures.
The number of Syrians who have been torn from their homes represents nearly a third of Syria's pre-war population of 20.8 million.
hurriyetdailynews.com
25/10/13
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French President calls on EU to increase help to Turkey to deal with refugees....
ReplyDeleteFrench President François Hollande has called on the EU member states to increase help to Syria's neighbors, which are strained by flow of refugees fleeing the war in the country, to more effectively handle with the huge numbers of refugees.
Hollande's call comes as thousands of Syrian refugees try to land in European countries after risky travels through the Mediterranean Sea amid recent incidents of boat sinkings that sent wake-up calls across the European capitals.
Hollande said the European Union should step up efforts to assist Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey to handle with the hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees who took shelter in those neigboring countries, severely testing the limits of the host countries.
The French president also stated on Friday that the EU should set up a mechanism to host Syrian refugees in better conditions if the migrants somehow end up in Europe.
The issue of refugees has been a formidable challenge for the neighboring countries, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey, which now host more than 1,500,000 Syria refugees in total.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has recently urged the international community to do more in helping the host countries whose resources and capacities are strained with unabated flow of refugees fleeing the protracted fighting in Syria.
http://www.todayszaman.com//news-329842-french-president-calls-on-eu-to-increase-help-to-turkey-to-deal-with-refugees.html
26/10/13