Turkey stops refugee deaths in Aegean Sea: FM

UNITED NATIONS (AA) – Turkey has “completely stopped” refugee deaths in Turkish waters, that country’s foreign minister said Monday.

The comments by Mevlut Cavusoglu came during a roundtable meeting on the flow of refugees at the sidelines of 71st Session of UN General Assembly Meeting in New York City.

“What we do in the Aegean Sea is unique,” Cavusoglu said. “We are fighting against human smuggling and traffickers.”

The refugee flow to Europe by sea in 2015 caused the deaths of at least 1,000 victims, according to Cavusoglu.

“For more than six month in 2016 we completely stopped loss of lives in Turkish waters,” he said. “Daily irregular crossing dropped to an average of 100” compared to last September when it was about from 7,000 daily.

He said Turkey’s efforts in the last six months “had a deterrent effect for more than 3,000 irregular migrants to reach European destinations” and his country has established a refugee regime to handle all refugee-related issues, from health care to education. He conceded, however, that Turkey is not able to provide education for two third of its refugees.

Turkey provides Syrian refugees with work permits and many will eventually be granted Turkish citizenship, he added.

Turkey’s efforts should be an example for other parts of the Mediterranean Sea, he said.

Turkey is hosting nearly 3 million refugees, mostly from Syria, and is one of the top refugee hosting countries, according to the UN.

Cavusoglu noted the importance of developing long-term development assistance to vulnerable people.

The UN General Assembly adopted the New York Declaration to do more to that end.

Cavusoglu said it would be key to putting commitments into action.

The declaration offers pointers on better sharing the responsibility for hosting and supporting refugees, as well as countering xenophobia and harmful rhetoric

The minister called on the international community to join efforts to build “effective border control measures” to stop the flow of foreign fighters and irregular migrants.

He said political leaders should build a positive perception about refugees, in order to ease their suffering in host countries.

Speaking at a high level plenary session on refugees, Greece’s Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras also said the flow of irregular migrants into Greece has significantly decreased thanks to the a deal between Turkey and Europe in March.

The agreement “has led to a radical decrease in flow [of migrants] and most importantly the radical decrease of deaths in the Aegean Sea,” he said

The deal aimed to discourage irregular migration through the Aegean Sea by taking stricter measures against human traffickers and improving conditions for Syrian refugees in Turkey.

The deal included 6 billion euro ($6.8 billion) aid package for Turkey to care for millions of refugees hosted in that country.

According to Tsipras, the agreement has replaced a “dangerous route to Europe” with a legal and safe one but added that the benefits of the deal can only come out with a “shared responsibility and solidarity” within the international community.

Under the deal, refugees trying to enter Europe illegally will not get a chance to be resettled in the EU, as all new irregular migrants crossing from Turkey to the Greek islands as of March 20 will be returned to Turkey.

“We need the promises made to Greece to be kept; many more European asylum officials to support out asylum service and many more relocations of refugees from Greece to other countries,” Tsipras added.