As of: 08/22/2021 01:07 a.m.
In view of the crisis in Afghanistan, Turkey fears a massive refugee movement to the west. However, the Turkish President Erdogan sees the limits of accepting migrants in his own country as having already been reached.
In view of the critical situation in Afghanistan, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is clearly against accepting further refugees in his own country.
In a telephone conversation with Chancellor Angela Merkel, he warned again that Turkey could not bear any “additional burden” if Afghans were to flee to the west on a massive scale.
Millions of refugees already live in Turkey
“A new wave of migration is inevitable if the necessary measures are not taken in Afghanistan and Iran,” Erdogan said to Merkel, according to his government. However, Turkey has already taken in around five million refugees. More could not be done.
Turkey has taken in more refugees than any other country in the world. In addition to around 3.6 million people from Syria, hundreds of thousands of other migrants are already living there, including people from Afghanistan.
More support for aid organizations
However, according to the German government’s deputy spokeswoman, Ulrike Demmer, Merkel and Erdogan agreed that bringing vulnerable people from Afghanistan to safety is the “top priority”. In addition, Germany and Turkey want to coordinate their support for international aid organizations more closely, above all for the UN refugee agency.
Erdogan had already warned several times in the past few days of the threat of mass exodus from Afghanistan to Turkey and the EU. In view of this, the Turkish government should step up the construction of the border wall with Iran.