The British government has not presented Turkey with any plans to establish a refugee centre to process Afghan migrants, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said, adding that the country would reject such a proposal.
Britain is looking at establishing processing ‘hubs’ for Afghan refugees in countries such as Turkey and Pakistan, the Mail on Sunday said in a follow-up to an article for the newspaper written by Defence Secretary Ben Wallace.
“The news in the U.K. press concerning that there are plans to establish an asylum processing center for Afghan asylum-seekers in Turkey do not reflect the truth,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry said on its website on Sunday.
“No official request has been conveyed to us from any country up until today. Should there be such a request, we would not accept it anyway,” it said.
Wallace did not mention any specific country where refugees could be processed in his article. He said Britain would “establish a series of processing hubs across the region outside Afghanistan for those Afghans we have an obligation to bring to this country”.
As the United States pulls the last of its troops out of Afghanistan following the Taliban’s rapid takeover of the country, Europe is faced with the possibility of a large-scale inflow of refugees and migrants entering its territory.
At least 1,429 Afghans have been evacuated from Kabul since last Friday as part of a relocation scheme designed to help interpreters and others who have helped the British during their 20 years in the war-battered country, the Guardian reported on Sunday.
The U.K. has agreed to take 20,000 Afghan refugees in a separate scheme, 5,000 of which will be in the first year, the newspaper said.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said last week that Turkey did not have “any obligation whatsoever to be a safe haven for Afghan refugees”. The country is building a wall along its border with Iran designed to halt the flow of migrants.
Turkey hosts almost 4 million Syrian refugees who fled the civil war there and 300,000 Afghans.
Erdoğan is under political pressure from the opposition to halt any further influx of refugees. The politicians are questioning whether he has done secret deals with western allies to host Afghans fleeing the Taliban.
“They will choose refugees for themselves, the rest will be left in our country,” Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) said on Twitter on Sunday.
“Now, my question to Erdoğan is: Are the countries with which you said “I did not make a deal” now able to say these things without even the need to ask the opinion of the Republic of Turkey?” Kılıçdaroğlu said in reference to Wallace’s statement. “Or are they so audacious because you made a deal? Which one is right? Be honest for once, Erdoğan!”
Turkey cannot bail out Europe by taking in Afghans who worked for Western countries in Afghanistan, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told European Council President Charles Michel in a telephone call on Sunday, Habertürk television reported.
Fifty-four percent of Turkish voters say their views of the governing Justice and Development Party (AKP) will be negatively affected should it open Turkey’s border to Afghan refugees, according to a July survey held by polling company Metropoll.
(This article was updated to clarify Wallace comments from second paragraph.)
Ahval