Türkiye has long been at the receiving end of a refugee influx and on Tuesday, it marked World Refugees Day as the country hosting most refugees. Praised for its humane treatment of millions, particularly from war-torn neighbor Syria, the country laments that the international community does little to share this burden. This was evident in President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s message on the occasion.

"The contemptuous mindset tracing its roots to colonialism has had a major impact in transforming the Mediterranean Sea, the historic cradle of civilizations, into a giant cemetery for refugees in recent years. The humanitarian tragedy in the Aegean Sea last week, where hundreds of innocent people, mostly children, died, is the latest and most shameful example of this mindset," Erdoğan said.

The president urged the international community, "especially countries which try to teach human rights and democracy to everyone except themselves," should "shoulder the responsibility" in this refugee crisis.

A fishing boat carrying the migrants who had been traveling from Libya to Italy and was being tracked by the Greek authorities as well as the European Union border protection agency Frontex sank off the western coast of Greece last week. Over 500 people are believed to be missing in the incident. It was the worst disaster involving migrants navigating treacherous waters in unsafe boats in recent years.

Erdoğan noted that the refugee issue could only be resolved by addressing the issues causing migration and forced displacement at its source. "For this reason, it is essential to implement the Global Compact on Refugees affirmed (by the United Nations) with Türkiye’s active contributions. We urge all parties to exert more efforts to comply with responsibilities for Compact’s implementation," he said. The Compact promotes safe and orderly migration and reduces human smuggling and trafficking. It was the first global document to tackle the migration issue and was signed by more than 190 nations.

The president said people were forced to migrate due to different causes, from terrorism, conflicts and civil wars to hunger and drought, especially in Türkiye’s region. "The number of displaced people in the world is now nearly 110 million and 35.3 million among them have been forced to migrate abroad, while 62.5 million people are internally displaced," he said.

Erdoğan noted Türkiye’s unchanged stance on irregular migration and refugee issues as "a global issue" and said they focused on Türkiye’s security and protecting people’s lives and dignity. "Our nation, which embraced those who fled oppression for centuries without discrimination, exhibited the same conscious stance in the face of crises in our region, from Syria to Ukraine. Türkiye always fulfilled its humanitarian duty, its duty as a neighbor. It supports projects for refugees’ safe, voluntary and dignified return to their homelands and implements projects to ensure it," he said in the statement.

He also denounced "pathological trends" fueled by the refugee crisis.

"We reject Islamophobia and xenophobia, neo-Nazi ideology and hate speech, which have spread to other communities just like poison ivy after taking root in Western countries. We see these pathological trends, which do not consider anyone other than those from their own race, culture and faith to be a human being, as a threat to humanitarian values and the common future of humanity," he said.

"With these evaluations and expectations, I hope that World Refugee Day may help raise global awareness, prevent further tragedies and solve the problems of refugees who struggle to hold onto life in different parts of the world," he concluded.