Turkey must keep border open to Syrian refugees: EU

The European Union (EU) has called on Turkey to fulfill its international obligations to keep its frontiers open to the Syrian refugees who are fleeing the nearly five-year foreign-backed militancy in their country.

“The Geneva convention is still valid which states that you have to take in refugees,” EU Enlargement and Regional Policy Commissioner Johannes Hahn said on Saturday.

Hahn made the remarks as he was going to attend an informal meeting of EU foreign ministers and their counterparts from countries seeking the bloc’s membership, including Turkey, in Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands, on Europe’s refugee crisis.

Turkey is the main route for refugees fleeing wars in the Middle East and North Africa to reach Europe.

The United Nations estimates that up to 20,000 people displaced by military operations around the Syrian northwestern city of Aleppo have gathered at the Bab al-Salam border crossing with Turkey.

Aleppo is the second Syrian city in a province bordering Turkey.

SS