Erdogan urges intl community to do more for refugees

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday voiced his concerns over the refugees who lost their lives in the Aegean Sea, mainly due to dangerous sea voyages, using unsafe vessels and plastic boats.

"So far, Turkey has rescued nearly 110,000 refugees attempting the sea crossing from Turkey to the Greek Islands," Erdogan said in his speech, at a judicial congress in Istanbul.

Erdogan said that the refugee issue needed more attention from the international community.

"The institutions, which are responsible for establishing global justice, are inactive," he said referring to the UN.

Turkey currently hosts 2.7 million Syrian refugees, as well as hundreds of thousands from troubled states such as Iraq and Afghanistan.

According to Turkish Coast Guard figures, in 2015 a total of 279 refugees lost their lives in the Aegean Sea.

Over the past year, thousands of people have made short-but-perilous attempts to cross the Aegean in a bid to reach Greece, before going on to northern and western Europe.

A recent EU-Turkey agreement now allows for the return of "irregular refugees" to Turkey from Greece in exchange for Syrian refugees to be relocated within the EU.