survey<\/a> carried out in 24 countries showed that 92% of respondents in Turkey believed that there are too many immigrants and it was negatively affecting their country.<\/p>\nThere are many signs that Turkey is reaching its maximum capacity to absorb any more refugees. Tens of thousands of Syrians gathering in the western port city of Izmir, preparing to risk their lives to reach the nearest European Union member Greece, is another indication of how unsustainable the situation has become.<\/p>\n
It is understandable that the small Greek islands are struggling to cope with the arrival of more than 1,000 refugees a day, mostly from Turkey. But the EU- member Greece is justifiably coming under strong criticism for failing to receive people that have survived the perilous journey to their shores with humanity and dignity.<\/p>\n
The European Union as a whole seems to lack a coherent and humanitarian response. Apart from Germany, the EU reaction to the Syrian refugee crisis has been seriously short of its international obligations. Containment in neighbouring countries can no longer be the only viable solution. Unless the EU starts an orderly programme of resettlement and humanitarian admission for refugees as proposed by the UNHCR, boat-loads of immigrants will continue to turn up on their shores.<\/p>\n
The European Union has asked Turkey to crack down on profit-seeking criminals smuggling migrants across the sea. This is fair criticism and Turkey must do more to tackle gangs that exploit and abuse increasing number of refugees. However, an unprecedented human crisis cannot be reduced to a security management issue alone. Populist reactions and inflammatory language from leading politicians further dehumanize desperate people that have already lost everything. Creating a climate of hostility towards people in need of assistance and protection only undermines those high values Europe has been so proud to espouse.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One can find many reasons to criticize Turkey for its Syrian policy but it can only be applauded for keeping its borders open to those fleeing the “worst humanitarian crisis of our generation”. According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Turkey hosts more refugees than any other country in the world. Atilla Toros, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[4],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27771"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27771"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27771\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27773,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27771\/revisions\/27773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}