Erdogan promises Syrian refugees in Turkey that he will 'never expel them'

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan promised Monday that he would never send Syrian refugees home by force.

The president of Turkey, which hosts more than 3.6 million Syrian refugees, said: "We will protect to the end our brothers who were expelled from Syria because of the war... We will never expel them from this land," denouncing the statements of opposition leaders who regularly demand the return of Syrian refugees to Syria.

Erdogan announced last week that he was preparing for the "return of a million" Syrians to their country on a voluntary basis, by financing the creation of shelters and suitable structures to receive Syrians in northwest Syria, with international assistance.

Turkey hosts about five million refugees on its soil, mostly Syrians and Afghans, under the terms of an agreement reached with the European Union in 2016.

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