- Title: Norway's Egeland criticises Erdogan plan to resettle Syrian refugees
- Date: 17th December 2019
- Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (English) NORWEGIAN REFUGEE COUNCIL (NRC) SECRETARY GENERAL, JAN EGELAND, SAYING: "We hear from Ankara that these people (Syrian refugees) are supposed to be pawns on a checkboard (chessboard) and they are going to be placed in a buffer zone, inside Syria, from where most of these people do not come. So that would mean de-population in an area where it was full of Kurds, with Sunni Arabs from Syria - not a good solution. There needs to be a better plan to facilitate voluntary, safe, informed, assisted return to Syria." GENEVA, SWITZERLAND (DECEMBER 17, 2019) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF TURKISH PRESIDENT RECEP TAYYIP ERDOGAN ADDRESSING GLOBAL REFUGEE FORUM SECURITY GLOBAL REFUGEE FORUM ONGOING AS ERDOGAN DELIVERS SPEECH GENEVA, SWITZERLAND (DECEMBER 16, 2019) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) NORWEGIAN REFUGEE COUNCIL (NRC) SECRETARY-GENERAL, JAN EGELAND, SAYING: "You put in a million or more people to an area they do not belong in. What would that lead to for the population which is there? I hope this will not happen really, it should not happen." GENEVA, SWITZERLAND (DECEMBER 16, 2019) (REUTERS) NGOs, AGENCIES, STATES' BOOTHS IN HALL, SET UP FOR THE GLOBAL REFUGEE FORUM LIT CUBE ANNOUNCING PROGRAMME FOR SIDE EVENTS AT FORUM
- Embargoed: 31st December 2019 16:25
- Keywords: Erdogan Jan Egeland Syria Turkey secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council
- Location: GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
- City: GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
- Country: Switzerland
- Topics: Asylum/Immigration/Refugees,Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA003BAD57WN
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan's plan to resettle one million Syrian refugees in a "peace zone" in northern Syria presented on Tuesday (December 17) at the U.N.'s Global Refugee Forum was met with scepticism by Jan Egeland, the secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council.
Egeland, a former U.N. emergency relief coordinator, said that while Turkey was far ahead in terms of hosting refugees, resettling Arab refugees in areas previously populated by Kurds was wrong.
It was not the first time President Erdogan spoke about this plan, and in an interview with Reuters on the eve of the forum, Egeland insisted it should not happen and that a better solution needed to be found for Syrian refugees.
Erdogan, whose country hosts 3.7 million Syrian refugees, the largest refugee population worldwide, urged world powers on Tuesday to help it resettle one million Syrian refugees very soon, accusing governments of moving more quickly to guard Syria's oil fields than its children.
(Production: Marina Depetris) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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