Turkey Kicks Off Syria Housing Project for Refugee Returns

By Staff, Agencies

Turkey on Wednesday launched the construction of nearly a quarter million housing units to resettle refugees in rebel-occupied northern Syria, Turkish media said as repatriation efforts loom large in the country’s presidential runoff.

Builders were seen working by an AFP correspondent as well as heavy machinery being used on the outskirts of the town of al-Ghandura, in the Jarabulus area near the Syrian-Turkish border.

On a billboard, "Project for safe, voluntary, and honorable returns" was written in Arabic and Turkish, with the names of organizations including Turkey's relief agency AFAD and the Qatar Fund for Development featured on the sign.

“Syrian refugees living in Turkey will settle in the houses as part of a dignified, voluntary, safe return,” Turkey’s Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said at the launch of the project, according to the IHA news agency.

“240,000 houses will be built” in the region, he added, expressing hope that the project would be completed in three years.

Since the war on Syria began in 2011, neighboring Turkey has taken in over three million people who fled the fighting. Most have “temporary protection” status, leaving them vulnerable to a forced return.