Turkey uses Afghan resettlement as bargaining chip with US

Experts say Ankara is seeking to use the transit of potential transferees via a third country as a bargaining chip in its strained relationship with the US.

The US State Department on Monday announced a new programme under which thousands more Afghans will have a chance to resettle as refugees in the United States. Afghans in the progamme would have to make their own way to a third country, where they will wait 12 to 14 months for their application to be processed.

Turkey’s foreign ministry said in a statement it rejected a reference to Turkey as a migration route for Afghans and added that Turkey, the world’s leading host for refugees with more than 4 million migrants, would not “undertake a new migration crisis on behalf of a third country”.