Turkey may ‘return 1mn refugees’ to Syria as Erdogan warns of new migrant wave in Europe

Ankara plans to resettle 1 million refugees in northern Syria and may reopen the route for migrants into Europe if it does not receive adequate international support for the plan, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday.

Turkey hosts 3.6 million Syrian refugees and controls parts of north Syria where it says 350,000 Syrians have already returned. It is setting up a “safe zone” with the US in the northeast where Erdogan said many more could be moved.

“We should form such a safe zone that we, as Turkey, can build towns here in lieu of the tent cities here,” Reuters quoted Erdogan as saying in a speech in Ankara. “Our goal is for at least one million of our Syrian brothers to return to the safe zone we will form along our 450km border.”

“Give us logistical support and we can go build housing at 30km (20 miles) depth in northern Syria. This way, we can provide them with humanitarian living conditions,” he said. “Otherwise we will have to open the gates,” Erdogan said.