Europe must shoulder Syria refugee burden, Turkey says

Europe does not fully grasp the magnitude of Syria's refugee crisis and should open its borders to shoulder a responsibility Turkey has been bearing alone, the head of the Turkish relief effort said. 

The country, which officially has welcomed around 1.9 million refugees, has warned it is reaching capacity, and thousands are now making the perilous journey by boat from Turkey to Greece in a bid to enter Europe. 
"Turkey has been left alone as if this is its own problem. This is not a problem Turkey created nor one it can end," Fuat Oktay, director of Turkey's Disaster and Emergency Management Agency (AFAD), told Reuters in an interview. 

"It is a humanitarian tragedy, and if the EU were to stand with Turkey it would directly serve its own interests." 

Ankara has spent $6 billion caring for refugees since the Syrian civil war began in March 2011, compared with $418 million in aid received from all other countries including the European Union, Oktay said. 

Cash-strapped Greece, already crippled by economic crisis, has been struggling to cope with the influx of migrants, many of whom cross the narrow stretch of water from the Turkish mainland to Greek islands in inflatable boats to seek refuge in the EU. 

With conditions becoming increasingly chaotic, the Greek government chartered a car ferry which picked up more than 2,400 Syrian refugees from the islands of Kos, Leros, Kalymnos and Lesbos and carried them to the Greek mainland on Aug. 20. 

Greece has also warned it cannot cope with the burden alone, appealing to its EU partners to come up with a comprehensive strategy as 21,000 refugees landed on Greek shores last week alone. 

"An open-door policy will help Europe to grasp the magnitude of the problem...