Stop treating refugees as criminals, NGOs in Turkey say

By Humeyra Atilgan Buyukovali

ISTANBUL (AA) - Nongovernmental organizations have urged authorities to take steps to prevent refugees from being equated as potential criminals and terrorists.

The bodies voiced their concerns at an event in Istanbul on Tuesday where they discussed the problems faced by refugees who flee their countries in search for a better life.

The event was held to mark the World Refugee Day that commemorates the strength, courage and perseverance of millions of displaced people.

Turkey has the largest refugee population in the world and is currently home to over 3 million displaced Syrians, according to the Directorate General of Migration Management.

This number accounts for around 45 percent of all Syrian refugees in the region, the UN says. An additional 300,000 refugees are mostly from Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran and Somalia.

Speaking at the event, IHH Humanitarian Aid Foundation Chairman Bulent Yildirim said: "Now that we are a country with the most number of refugees in the world, we have to review our practices."

Bulent Yildirim pointed out that many innocent refugees were being "unjustly branded” with international terrorism.

"Many refugees are treated as if they were Daesh members or they were linked to Daesh," he said.

International Refugee Rights Association Chief Executive Officer Ugur Yildirim said international terrorism codes were being issued "so easily even based on a spy's report".

"We want to have better days with our refugee brothers with whom we share our neighborhood and schools, our jobs and food," Ugur Yildirim said.

He said each day the reasons behind becoming a refugee was increasing, "and so does the percentage of refugees among the world's population".

According to the UN, every minute 20 people leave behind everything to flee war, persecution or terrorism.

"Freedoms spread in one part of the world while wars spread in the other part," he said. "In one part, people have consumption frenzy and in the other they have famine."

The IHH head also called on Turkish authorities to urgently form a commission on refugees to handle their problems in coordination with nongovernmental organizations.

"We are the country of mercy, which provides the world's most humanitarian aid," Bulent Yildirim said.

Kenan Alpay, vice chairman of Ozgur-Der (The Association of Free Thought and Education Rights), said: "We reject the idea that refugees are potential criminals."