Ankara to accommodate Aleppo refugees inside Syria
by Ali Ünal
ANKARADec 16, 2016 - 12:00 am GMT+3
by Ali Ünal
Dec 16, 2016 12:00 am
As the evacuation of civilians from war-torn Aleppo continues, Turkey plans to accommodate up to 80,000 civilians inside Syrian borders. Turkey's Foreign Ministry spokesman Ambassador Hüseyin Müftüoğlu said on Thursday that their first objective to ensure the security of the refugees who fled Aleppo and host them in camps that it builds in Syria.
"The Turkish disaster management agency, AFAD, and the Turkish Red Crescent have already made their preparations for a possible refugee influx, and as a country that is already hosting 3 million refugees, we are ready and don't have any infrastructure problem in this regard," Müftüoğlu said.
On another note, sources in Ankara indicated that Turkey has prepared a two-stage plan for the evacuation of Syrian refugees. According to the plan that was discussed at the recent Cabinet meeting, Aleppo refugees will be moved to the moderate opposition Free Syrian Army (FSA)-controlled city of Idlib in northern Syria. Sources stated that the Turkish Red Crescent has already built a field hospital in Idlib and intensified its efforts to build a tent city there. Meanwhile, AFAD also launched works to build a container city in the refugee camp which is composed of housing units converted from shipping containers and prefabricated housing units. Deputy Prime Minister Veysi Kaynak, who is in charge of AFAD, also went to the Syrian border province of Hatay to manage the ongoing evacuation and resettlement process of the Aleppo refugees, sources added.
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