Over 500,000 refugees have returned to Syria, says Turkey’s interior minister

Photo: Briquette houses built by Turkey in İdlib(AA)

Some 502,000 refugees from Syria have returned to their country, Minister of Interior Süleyman Soylu has said.

"On average, 400-500 people return each week. The regions they returned to are Jarabulus, A'zaz, Marea, Al-Bab, Ras al-Ayn, and Tell Abyad. These are all safe regions in Syria that we have created," Soylu remarked at an event in İstanbul today (May 20).

"There is an issue in Turkey that has been discussed for quite a long time, always speculated. That is the Syrian, Afghan, Pakistani, and African refugees," Soylu said, referring to the recent public debate about the situation of refugees.

Soylu also said about 2.6 million people have been prevented from entering Turkey at the border in the last 6 years.

"Around 1 million 250 thousand people were caught inside Turkey and nearly 400 thousand of them were sent back. About 700 thousand people crossed to Europe in the last 6 years."

He gave the information about the briquette houses that Turkey has been constructing in the city of İdlib in Syria and planning to settle the Syrian refugees there.

"The opposition had asked, ' Whose money are you using to construct these briquette houses?' We are making them with the donations of the citizens. We have built approximately 57,500 briquette houses. The projects of 77,000 have been completed. About 250,000 houses will be built in certain regions. We have not accepted asylum seekers in Istanbul since 2019."

Refugee debate

The deputy minister of interior, İsmail Çataklı, announced on May 9 that Turkey hosts 5.5 million foreigners, including 3.7 million refugees from Syria.

The situation of the refugees has been widely discussed in Turkey, with several opposition parties promising to send refugees back and the government defending its migration policies.

While President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan dismissed suggestions to repatriate refugees, he recently brought up the idea to resettle about a million people in "briquette houses" in Syria's Idlib in order to "reduce the number of refugees to reasonable numbers."

CLICK - 'Sending Syrians back is not easy as the politicians say'

(TB/VK)