Turkish FM: Root causes of migration have to be tackled

By Fatih Hafiz Mehmet

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's foreign minister said Monday in order to tackle the root causes of irregular migration the source countries have to be helped.

Speaking at a panel on multiculturalism at the 14th Bled Strategic Forum in the Slovenian resort town, Mevlut Cavusoglu said the world has failed to deal with the problem of irregular migration.

Cavusoglu said the source countries of migration did not receive the necessary support they needed from other countries.

"There are around 70 million displaced persons in the world. This number is more than the displaced persons during the WWII," Cavusoglu said.

He said that Turkey is a transit country for irregular migration.

"We have spent $37 billion from the state budget and what we received from the international community is less than $1 billion in addition to what we got from the EU," Cavusoglu said.

Turkey hosts some 3.6 million Syrian refugees, more than any other country in the world.

Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011, when the Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests with unexpected ferocity.