Refugee

The journey in Turkey of the 3.5-meter-tall puppet "Little Amal," which was designed to highlight the difficulties of Syrian refugee children to the world, ended on Aug. 9.

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Relations between Brussels and Ankara - already strained by earlier crises over refugees - face an even bigger test as the number of Afghans fleeing westwards rapidly increases.

The U.S. walked back on Aug. 4 remarks from senior officials regarding Afghan refugee flows amid a diplomatic row with Turkey, and voiced regret about the comments.

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State Department spokesman Ned Price said Washington "did not intend to single out any particular country as a destination for refugees."

Turkey will not accept the "irresponsible" decision taken by the United States regarding the resettlement of Afghan refugees, because the plan addresses Turkey as the target country for application of the migration procedures, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Tanju Bilgiç said on Aug. 3.

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Turkey's vice president urged the EU on July 6 to open legal migration routes for Syrians as part of the fair burden and responsibility sharing principle.

Fuat Oktay also appealed for member states to activate the voluntary humanitarian admission mechanism with concrete commitments and to increase the settlement quotas for refugees.

Foreign artists living in Turkey came together in Istanbul to hold a concert to mark World Refugee Day on June 20.

The concert organized by the International Refugee Rights Association was at the Cemil Candaş Şişli Municipality City Cultural Center.

Murat Polat, the concert's music and art director, said the show was broadcast live on the Refugee TV YouTube channel.

As the world marks International Refugee Day with a record number of displaced people hit by ongoing conflicts and coronavirus pandemic on top of it, the U.N. Refugee Agency's representative for Turkey called on the international community to ramp up support given for countries hosting a large number of refugees and asylum seekers.

The U.N. refugee agency says war, violence, persecution and human rights violations caused nearly 3 million people to flee their homes last year, even though the COVID-19 crisis restricted movement worldwide as countries shut borders and ordered lockdowns.

Noting that Turkey hosts the most refugees of any country in the world, a U.N. representative said on June 16 that it should receive more support from other states in this regard. 

Denmark's parliament on Thursday passed a law enabling the government to relocate asylum seekers to countries outside Europe, news wires reported. The move is seen as an apparent break with the EU's efforts to overhaul Europe's failed migration and asylum rules.