Turkish deputy PM calls for global action for refugees

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus called Monday on the international community to create “joint and humanistic solutions" to resolve the ongoing refugee crisis, by making two proposals.

Speaking at a panel themed, “Migration and its Socio-Economic Effects" and organized by Istanbul-based non-profit institute Caspian Strategy Institute (HASEN) in Istanbul, he proposed to establish an umbrella organization within the U.N. "to find a lasting solution to the global refugee crisis".

“There is a need for an [international] umbrella organization, which is able to resolve problems of all the refugees and which has organizational skills and financial possibilities," Kurtulmus said, pointing that there are around 60 million displaced in the world.

Other than the UN Refugee Agency, there could be a UNICEF-like organization, to which countries give financial support indispensably, he noted.

“We've just put forward this [offer] technically. We will work on this and reveal the details," the deputy prime minister added.

Kurtulmus also suggested establishing living quarters for refugees that would work similarly to a village or a district, different from standard camps.

“We have to establish living quarters for refugees, where they can govern themselves, contribute in countries, where they stay, with their productions financially," he said.

Turkey is currently hosting the world's largest refugee population, including around 2 million Syrians, and has said to have spent around $8 billion over the last five years.

“This is not just an architectural project. It is an economics project based on production. We are ready to share this project with the whole world and to develop it," Kurtulmus said.

Syria's devastating civil war, now in its fifth year, has left some 250,000 people dead, according to UN figures, and the country is now divided between different heavily-armed factions.

The EU is facing the biggest refugee influx since the World War II. More than 500,000 refugees entered the EU in the first eight months of the year, most from conflict zones such as Syria.