Turkey should not be left alone in Syrian migrant issue: ILO head

The International Labor Organization (ILO) has been working with several countries to find a solution which would help Syrian migrants integrate into the workforce, while Turkey should not be left alone in resolving issues regarding the dramatic rise in the flow of Syrian migrants, the head of the organization has said in an exclusive interview with daily Hürriyet. 

"We have been working on Syrian migrants' access to workplaces along with Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and Turkey. We have spoken about this issue in a series of meetings. Turkey deserves great admiration by accepting such a high number of Syrian migrants. Syrian migrants need to be a part of the workforce, but the conditions of the workforce needs to be considered when offering this right to migrants anywhere. Some reasonable solutions need to be developed about this issue and Turkey should not be left alone," ILO Director General Guy Ryder said. 

Ryder noted the government makes decisions on the issue, while the ILO plays a stimulating role. 

"As we face an urgent situation, we need to act immediately," he added. 

He visited the capital city of Ankara to hold a series of meetings with Turkish and foreign labor authorities on the sidelines of G-20 ministerial talks. 

"It was, however, a bit discouraging to see the woman employment issue was not on the agenda at these meetings. Turkey needs actually to consider this both a social and economic issue," he said. 

'200 million jobless people'

Ryder noted the largest problem in the world was unemployment. 

"There are 200 million unemployed people across the world. Around 40 million new jobs need to be created annually to be able to enable young people to join the workforce. Worst of all, the...