Erdogan threatens to ‘open gates of Europe’ to refugees

‘We cannot be forced to handle the burden alone’

TURKEY has threatened to allow millions of Syrian refugees to cross into Europe unless the US agrees to help establish a safe zone to resettle them in northern Syria immediately.

“We will be forced to open the gates,” said Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish president. “We cannot be forced to handle the burden alone.”

Mr Erdogan wants to establish the so-called safe zone along its border with Syria and resettle at least one million of the 3.6million Syrian refugees currently living in Turkey there.

Since 2016 Turkey has stemmed the flow of migrants through the country into Europe, as part of a deal with the EU, in return for funds for refugee support and visa-free travel for Turks.

But Mr Erdogan’s government is under increasing pressure to return refugees to Syria or resettle them abroad, and the president has increasingly complained that the EU is not upholding its end of the bargain.