UNHCR agrees with Erdogan on voluntary refugee return

By Peter Kenny

GENEVA (AA) – The UN refugee chief said Tuesday that the UNHCR believes as President Erdogan said earlier that the return of refugees to Syria can only be voluntary.

The High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, spoke at a press conference with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on day two of the Global Refugee Forum in Geneva, Switzerland, co-chaired by Turkey.

He said the forum with 3,000 participants registered is the biggest event the UNHCR has managed in its history.

Grandi was asked about what President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said earlier in setting out a plan for returning Syrian refugees "quickly."

"Our position on return is always the same. Return can only be voluntary, but President Erdogan said it very clearly himself, return can only be voluntary," said the UNHCR chief.

He added, "Our position has always been as well that if people return to Syria wherever they return they need and deserve humanitarian support, and I hope that this continues to be the case.

"So that wherever they go whether from Turkey, wherever they go preferably to their place of origin. That support has been difficult to obtain.”

Guterres for his part said, “Global forced displacement has been rising steadily in recent years.”

When he started in 2005 as High Commissioner for Refugees, there were 38 million people displaced in the world, the refugee agency was helping one million people go back home every year.

''Today, more than 70 million people are forcibly displaced, double the level of 20 years ago and 2.3 million more than just one year ago.''

The Turkish president said earlier Tuesday that the safe return of refugees is key to permanent stability and normalization in Syria; just like anti-terror efforts.

"Return of refugees is as important as the fight against terrorism in the establishment of permanent stability and normalization in Syria," Erdogan told the Global Refugee Forum.

He said: "Formulas to keep refugees in their own lands and repatriate those in Turkey need to be implemented."

Turkey has been carrying the responsibility for the refugees alone for nine years on behalf of the international community, he said, and stressed: "Keeping refugees within Turkish borders cannot be seen as the only solution to the Syrian refugee crisis."

"I am not saying this as the president of a country far from conflicts and irregular migration. According to the UN figures, I am the president of a country that hosts the most asylum seekers in the world," said Erdogan.

Turkey is currently hosting five million refugees -- with 3.7 million of them Syrians -- and never forcefully repatriated any of them, he elaborated.