Turkey will not allow new Syrian refugees after earthquake: minister

The Turkish minister said they would continue to facilitate humanitarian aid to Syria. (file)

Ankara, Turkey:

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Monday that Turkey would not allow a new influx of refugees from Syria after last week’s devastating earthquake.

“The claim that there is a new influx of refugees from Syria to Turkey (after the earthquake) is not true. We will not allow that, it is out of the question,” Cavusoglu told a press conference in Ankara.

Cavusoglu was commenting on claims that Syrians were flooding into Turkey after last Monday’s magnitude 7.8 earthquake that killed more than 37,000 people in both countries.

Cavusoglu said humanitarian aid was being delivered to Syrian rebel-held areas through the Bab al Hawa border crossing, and that Turkey was set to open two new border crossings from Kilis province after the earthquake.

“All these border crossings are for humanitarian aid. It does not mean that Syrians are coming to Turkey through these crossings,” he said.

He said, “We are facilitating humanitarian aid for the Syrian people, but we are not allowing a new Syrian refugee to come. These are two different issues.”

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