Istanbul: Ekrem Imamoglu, Mayor of Turkey’s most populated city Istanbul, urged the international community to extend “the highest level of international cooperation” for the safe return of refugees as their number hit 2.5 million in the city.
“Turkey’s largest city Istanbul currently faced with nearly 2.5 million refugees, including asylum seekers and those who received their residence permits,” Imamoglu said.
This population has matured in the past seven years, and it has been highly dramatic and laborious to cope with the entire process, Xinhua news agency quoted the Mayor as saying.
He urged the world to scrutinise the flow of migrations caused by wars, famines, and different kinds of inequalities, and work together for solutions.
Turkey, a key transit point for asylum seekers on their way to Europe, is home to over 4 million refugees, including 3.7 million Syrians, according to official figures.