Stephen Kinnock – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Kinnock on 2016-05-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will make representations to his Turkish counterpart to (a) re-open Turkey’s borders to Syrian asylum seekers and (b) conduct independent investigations on alleged attacks on Syrian asylum seekers by Turkish border guards.

Mr David Lidington

We are aware of the allegations of the use of lethal force against civilians trying to cross the border from Syria into Turkey. We are unable to verify these allegations, as is the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. The allegations have been strongly refuted by the Government of Turkey. We regularly raise with the Government of Turkey issues relating to the management of the border with Syria and the treatment of refugees. Turkey is hosting over 2.7million Syrian refugees. We understand that the Turkish government has made preparations to accept more Syrian refugees should conditions in Syria necessitate so, but that its approach is to enable humanitarian aid to be provided to affected populations in northern Syria.