About 800 Syrian refugees are returning to their country from Turkey every week but conditions are not suitable for a large number of voluntary returns, an official from the United Nations refugee agency said.
Turkey hosts around 3.7 million Syrians, the largest refugee population in the world. The government has said it plans to settle around 1 million Syrians in cinderblock houses that will be built in the country's northwest.
The plans did not attract international support, and the Turkey representative for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said on Monday that the conditions in Syria are not suitable for many refugees to return.
"The level of uncertainty in Syria does not enable a mass voluntary return movement these days," Philippe Leclerc told Reuters in an interview in Istanbul.
He said about 800 Syrians, mostly singles, return to various parts of northern Syria every week but most Syrians believed they would stay in Turkey because their economic conditions are more favorable than in Syria.
"Naturally, people believe that their future is in Turkey rather than Syria in view of the very little progress we have seen," he said, saying that political, social and economic conditions in Syria are deteriorating.
Leclerc separately said it was important for Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the United Nations to work on exporting Ukrainian grain to overcome the negative impacts of food security problems around the world.
A de facto Russian blockade has led to the shut down of food exports from Ukraine, one of the world's leading sources of grain and food oil, causing international concern about global shortages and hunger.
The United Nations is trying to broker a deal to resume Ukraine exports and Russian food and fertilizer exports, which Moscow says are harmed by sanctions.
Leclerc said the rising prices of grains are worsening food security issues around the globe, including in Afghanistan, the Middle East and the Horn of Africa.
"It is important that the United Nations, Russian Federation, Ukraine and Turkey are trying to work on the possibility of having the Ukrainian grains exported - be it by sea or by land through Romania," Leclerc said.
Russia has said it has offered "safe passage" for Ukraine grain shipments from Black Sea ports but is not responsible for establishing the corridors and Turkey suggested that ships could be guided around sea mines.
Leclerc said 145,000 Ukrainians had arrived in Turkey since Russia's invasions, and 10,000 had received a residency permit on top of 20,000 who already had them. Another 5,000 people applied for international protection, Leclerc added.
The Turkish parliament speaker on Monday also urged the international community to share the refugee burden.
"As the issue of migration is not Turkey's problem, it is a great injustice that the material and moral burden of this problem should be placed only on Turkey's shoulders," Mustafa Şentop said, addressing the Global Parliamentary Conference on Migration in Istanbul.
"It is a great injustice to try to put the burden of this problem on a few countries," Şentop added.
The two-day event, co-hosted by the Turkish Parliament and Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), kicked off in Istanbul on Monday, as the annual World Refugee Day is being marked around the globe.
The refugee burden, he said, has not been shared fairly by the international community. "Those who caused it are turning their back on the problems they have caused. Turkey is not a country responsible for this migration."
On Greece's treatment of refugees, Şentop said: "We see that our neighbor Greece does not hesitate to sink" refugee boats.
"We see they do not refrain from introducing pushback policies," he added.
Şentop said the European Union has also closed its eyes to this inhumane treatment.
"Unfortunately, pushback incidents that we have been facing in Europe in recent years have become a common practice. Turkey has saved nearly 40,000 irregular migrants from pushbacks in the Aegean Sea since 2020."
For his part, IPU President Duarte Pacheco thanked especially Turkish authorities as Turkey hosts the largest refugee population in the world.
"Because they did all their best to receive these migrants as people, not as figures. And they do their best to integrate (these) migrants" with programs on education and job creation etc."
He also said that they were done "without support from the international community."
Later on Monday, Şentop and Pacheco addressed a joint news conference.
"Unfortunately, Turkey was left alone in this migration issue," Şentop said, adding as it is a "global problem," the solution "must be global."
According to Şentop, the necessary contribution, support, and global responsibility for the migration issue have not been provided.
Together with Pacheco, "we thought it would be right for the parliamentarians to come together and discuss the problem and solution proposals together for this global problem," he said.
"We also thought that it would be beneficial to do it in Turkey and to share its experience with the parliamentarians of other countries," he added.
Şentop said the decision for the conference was taken before the war in Ukraine started and added: "We consider it useful as an issue that will raise awareness on the subject a little more."
For his part, Pacheco said parliamentarians can share the successful examples and practices they have discussed here when they return to their countries, adding the issue of migration has turned into a global problem.
Parliamentarians from more than 50 countries attended the conference, he said.
According to official figures, Turkey hosts over 5 million migrants from 190 different backgrounds, frequently urging the international community to take concrete steps to tackle the global migration crisis.
It's been more than 10 years since the first group of Syrian refugees, consisting of 250 people, entered Turkey, starting their new lives in the country after fleeing the war and persecution of the Bashar Assad regime. Since the beginning of the Syrian civil war in 2011, Turkey has backed moderate opposition groups against the Assad regime and opened its doors to those who had to flee the country to save their lives.
Now, Turkey hosts more Syrian migrants than any other country in the world. The country also leads humanitarian aid efforts for Syrians in Turkey and opposition-controlled areas of northern Syria while making large investments for Syrians in Turkey in social cohesion policies to help them integrate into society smoothly. Most Syrians who fled the civil war and escaped to Turkey are happy in the country and do not want to return home, a recent poll of Syrian refugees in Turkey revealed.
