Turkish official: Syrian asylum seekers cannot be deported
In an exclusive interview with the “Political Sunday” program on the Turkish channel (100TV), Gökçe Ok, the Director of Integration and Communication at the Presidency of the Turkish Immigration Administration, said: “International law refuses to deport asylum seekers or prevent them from coming to the country they go for protection.”
In response to the program presenter’s questions: How will the Syrians return? and how can we prevent the new migration waves, Gökçe Ok said: “the international laws stipulate that the migrations can use their right to claim asylum, we can’t say to anyone not to come. Asylum seekers can’t be deported or resettled in a third country.
He added “the problems that are believed to arise from immigration department and integration problems for immigrants at a time of their accommodation in our country must be discussed at the level of concept and rules, and not from media or publications side. The immigration phenomena is old as human history.
He concluded that the number of Syrians residing under a work or tourism residency permit is 1,414,776, while the number of Syrians under temporary protection is 3 million, 762,899, and the number of people under international protection is 320,068.
