Turkey has sent to world leaders a plan to end the Syrian refugee crisis in Europe and Turkey, prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu has said.
“A text is prepared for a proposal of the mechanism,” Davutoglu told reporters, cited by daily Hurriyet on Friday.
The plan had also been sent to heads of international organisations, he said, adding they already received some "positive feedback"".
"We proposed establishing a tripartite mechanism between Turkey, the EU and the US and a working group examining the difficulties of refugees while they try to reach Europe,” he said.
The first phase of the strategy involved political and diplomatic steps to prevent an influx of more refugees, he said. This includes a solution to the Syrian crisis including safe havens for refugees in the north of the country; ending political strife in Iraq and the fight against the so-called Islamic State jihadist group.
"There is no solution to the refugee crisis unless secure regions are established for Syrian people… Fleeing Syrians should be contained in this safe zone,” Davutoglu stated.
Repatriation of refugees as the third phase of the plan, he said.
Unless they were able to return to their homeland, some 4-5 million of Syrians who have fled the country since the civil war began in 2011 would spend decades in limbo, the fate that befell Palestinian refugees in 1948, Davutoglu warned.
EU leaders at an emergency summit on Wednesday agreed to boost funding to the United Nations to help refugees. Other action agreed was increasing aid to host countries in the Middle East and help to Balkan states lying in the path of the biggest migration wave Europe has seen since World War II.
The EU leaders also agreed to ratchet up border controls, including using EU-backed border security personnel on the bloc's external frontiers.
Earlier this week, EU ministers backed mandatory quotas to divide up 120,000 refugees among members over the next two years, but the vote was passed only by majority and was strongly opposed by some nations.
