Syrian refugees currently in Europe and the Middle East want to return home, and Turkey is looking to host a conference with Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon in order to devise a plan to help them achieve this aim, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Friday
ROME (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 06th December, 2019) Syrian refugees currently in Europe and the middle East want to return home, and Turkey is looking to host a conference with Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon in order to devise a plan to help them achieve this aim, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Friday.The foreign minister spoke at a panel of the Mediterranean Dialogues forum, MED 2019, currently being held in the Italian capital city, Rome.
"There are many refugees, not only in Turkey, but in other neighboring countries - Iraq, Lebanon and also Jordan. Obviously they want to go back. How do I know that? We do meet them. So far, 370,000 Syrian refugees from Turkey went back ... voluntarily because they feel safe there," Cavusoglu stated.
The minister outlined that a number of states are looking to host a conference in 2020 in order to work out pathways to aid the return of Syrian refugees.
"With Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon we are planning to co-host a conference on the return of the Syrians. It is a very complicated situation," Cavusoglu added.
On Thursday, the Russian Defense Ministry's Center for Reconciliation of Opposing Sides and Refugee Migration Monitoring said in a bulletin that over 2,000 Syrians had returned home in the space of the previous 24 hours.
According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees the conflict in Syria has created 5.6 million refugees, and 6.6 million internally displaced people. There are reportedly over a million Syrian refugees in Lebanon, while Turkey hosts the largest number of registered Syrian refugees - approximately 3.3 million.
