Ilgın Karlıdağ
May 13, 2016•Update: May 14, 2016
ISTANBUL
With nine days left until the World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul, experts and researchers gathered for an international community and refugee conference in Istanbul on Friday.
"This conference opens at a time of violated hope [and other] violations because conflicts have deepened in so many places and civilians are paying the price everywhere," said Gabriele Gun Tank, member of the board of the Germany-based NGO Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, which hosted Friday’s event in collaboration with Amnesty International in Turkey.
The purpose of Friday’s conference was to prepare for the World Humanitarian Summit, scheduled to be held on May 23 and 24, to discuss issues regarding refugees.
The conference came on the same day as the European Union's border agency Frontex said the number of refugees and migrants arriving in the Greek islands dropped by 90 percent in April compared to the previous month.
This comes after the EU-Turkey deal aiming to stem the flow of refugees coming into Europe.
"I think this situation we are facing now with the refugee crisis in Syria and the impact it’s having in Turkey and Europe is going to have a lot of impact in the right to seek asylum and how refugees are seen in the world, " Aitor Zabalgogeazko, head of mission for Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) in Aleppo, Syria, said at Friday’s conference.
