EU urges Turkey to keep border open to migrants

International Desk: The European Union has called on Turkey to open its borders to thousands of Syrians who are fleeing fierce government offensives and intense Russian airstrikes.

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said on Saturday that "the support that the EU is providing to Turkey, among others, is aimed exactly at guaranteeing" that Ankara can protect and host people that are seeking asylum.

EU foreign ministers met with their Turkish counterpart, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, for informal talks in Amsterdam on Saturday.

Çavuşoğlu said the government was keeping "this open border policy for these people fleeing from the aggression of the regime as well as air strikes of Russia."

"We need to keep this open door policy for them. We have received already more than 5,000 of them. Another 50-55,000 of them are on the way and we cannot leave them there."

Mogherini and Çavuşoğlu`s remarks come as tens of thousands of Syrians rush toward the Turkish border, fleeing a military offensive by the government forces backed by intense Russian airstrikes around Syria`s largest city, Aleppo.

Süleyman Tapsız, the governor of Kilis province on the border, told reporters that Turkey was caring for some 30-35,000 displaced Syrians on the Syrian side of the border and that there were no immediate plans to let them in.

Tapsız said on Saturday that Turkey had the ability to care for the Syrians inside Syria for the time being but had made preparations to allow them in in the event of an "extraordinary crisis." He did not elaborate.

Turkey kept its Öncüpınar border crossing in Kilis, opposite Syria`s Bab al-Salam, closed for a second day on Saturday and aid workers said the refugees were being directed to displaced people`s camps near the border.

Turkey`s state-run Anadolu agency said 15 Syrians injured in bombings near Aleppo crossed into Turkey through the border gate late on Friday.

Tapsız said an estimated 70,000 more Syrian could arrive at the border if the Russian and Syrian strikes don`t end.

Turkey is already home to 2.5 million Syrian refugees.

Source: Agencies

risingbd/Dhaka/Feb 07, 2016/A K Azad