Refugees from Syria are seen at a temporary settlement in Hatay, Turkey, on Feb. 26, 2020. (Xinhua/Wang Feng)
Turkey is making plans for a massive return of Syrians to their homeland as public hostility to their presence in the country is escalating.
However, the Turkish decision of voluntary repatriation remains problematic, as the present security conditions in Syria are not conducive for them to rebuild a life, experts said.
by Burak Akinci
ANKARA, May 7 (Xinhua) -- Turkey is making plans for a massive return of Syrians to their homeland as public hostility to their presence in the country is escalating.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday that Turkey is building homes and public facilities in parts of Syria held by Turkish-backed forces to support the new plan of encouraging the voluntary returns of 1 million Syrian refugees.
Making the remarks in a video message to a Turkish-sponsored residential construction project in Idlib, a rebel-held province of Syria, Erdogan said some 500,000 Syrians have already returned to "safe regions" in their home country in recent years.
Erdogan's repatriation talks came after he vowed in mid-March not to send Syrians back despite mounting public unease at almost 4 million Syrian refugees taking shelter in the country.
Last week, Turkey banned Syrian refugees it has hosted from traveling back to Syria for Eid al-Fitr, a holiday marking the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, in what seems a first-ever shift from its "open door" refugee policy for Syrians since the outbreak of their country's civil war in 2011.
People walk in a market zone of the Fatih district in Istanbul, Turkey, on Aug. 18, 2021. A majority of shops in this market zone on the European part of Istanbul belong to refugees, mostly Syrians, who flocked to the city with the dream of living better. (Photo by Serkan/Xinhua)
However, the Turkish decision of voluntary repatriation remains problematic, as the present security conditions in Syria are not conducive for them to rebuild a life, experts said.
"There are still clashes in certain parts of north Syria, and it is not favorable for the Syrians to return at this point," Metin Corabatir, an expert on refugee issues, told Xinhua.
As a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention, Turkey is bound by the principle of non-refoulement, which prohibits the return of anyone to a place where they would be at risk, said Corabatir, head of the Ankara-based Research Center on Asylum and Migration.
Turkey hosts the highest number of Syrian refugees in the world, in addition to several hundred thousand asylum seekers of other nationalities, mainly from neighboring countries.
The sheer number of refugees has become Turkey's headache over the years, while they have been increasingly blamed for many of Turkey's social and economic ills.
Refugees from Syria are seen at a temporary settlement in Hatay, Turkey, on Feb. 26, 2020. (Xinhua/Wang Feng)
Turkey is currently in the grip of an economic crisis as consumer prices accelerated to an annual rate of almost 70 percent in April, the highest in over two decades.
"Since the start of Turkey's economic hardships in 2018 there is an intensifying opposition to Syrians, people believe that we are robbing them of their jobs and wealth," Wahid, a 34-year-old Syrian migrant who didn't want his surname to be divulged, told Xinhua.
A study carried out by Turkish-German University Migration and Integration Research Center shows that over 70 percent of Turkish respondents have a "negative perception" of Syrians in general.
A destroyed building is seen at the Al-Qatirji industrial city in Syria's northern city of Aleppo on March 7, 2022. (Photo by Ammar Safarjalani/Xinhua)
But 77.8 percent of Syrian respondents said they were not planning to return to Syria, according to the survey.
Wahid said he has been living and working illegally in Turkey's capital city Ankara for over eight years, and none of his close family are taking steps to return home.
The Syrian said he wanted to return but could not see a safe future for his family there. ■
