Turkey advocates international cooperation for refugees

Turkey's foreign minister Feridun Sinirlioğlu urged world countries to act together to solve the ongoing refugee crisis gripping Turkey and Europe as the number of the displaced worldwide has topped the peaks reached since World War II.

Addressing the opening ceremony of the 8th Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) Summit Meeting on Wednesday, Sinirlioğlu said: “The pressing need to address the plight of migrants and what we must do together, through enhancing international collaboration, cannot be decoupled from this prevailing reality."

“As state actors, we also have an obligation to help move the policy debates in our capitals, and also at the international level, towards devising effective policies that will genuinely address the root causes that trigger the patterns of mass migrations we observe today," he added, speaking at the three-day summit themed “Strengthening Partnership: Human Mobility for Sustainable Development".

Millions of Syrian refugees have fled their country since war broke out more than four years ago. The UN said in June the number of forcibly displaced people worldwide has “for the first time in the post-World War II era, exceeded 50 million people".

“Turkey is determined to spare no effort to protect human lives through the strengthening of cooperation, and reinforcing the partnerships that enable human mobility for sustainable development," he added.

Turkey is hosting nearly 2 million refugees who fled their country since the Syrian civil war broke out more than four years ago. It is the world's largest Syrian refugee population.

Speaking at the summit, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said: “Migration is not something that should be blocked, but it is a process that should be managed well."

Jan Eliasson, UN deputy secretary general and a veteran Swedish diplomat, said in his speech: “Our ability to respond migration refugee movement has been tested as never before."

"This challenge is not only a crisis of numbers, it is crisis of solidarity" he added, noting that 240 million international migrants and more than 50 million refugees had been forcibly displaced. “This is a global phenomenon, a global challenge and a global concern."

“Turkey has been at the heart of the refugee crisis," he said: “In this region, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and Iraq paid the high price of the horrific war in Syria which must come to an end."

The summit, which will be held until Friday, brings together government experts from around 150 countries to dialogue and cooperation on international migration and its effects on development.