Tax Breaks for Firms Employing Migrants to Ease Refugee Crisis

Sanem Oktar,the president of the Turkish Women Entrepreneurs Association (KAGIDER), said that it would be wiser to have systems for the refugees to find jobs and maybe some kind of tax reduction for the companies employing them.

ANTALYA (Sputnik) — Giving tax deductions to companies employing refugees and creating jobs for them would pay off economically, the president of the Turkish Women Entrepreneurs Association (KAGIDER) told Sputnik on Sunday on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Antalya.

The migrant crisis is expected to be high on the agenda of the G20 world leaders' meeting underway in the southern Turkish resort. Turkey hosts around 2 million refugees, most of them from Syria.

"Economically, it would be wiser to have systems for the refugees to find job for them… and maybe some kind of tax reduction for the companies employing them, as well as finding appropriate sectors — like textile industry or agriculture," KAGIDER President Sanem Oktar said.

Oktar, who sits at the Steering Committee of the Women 20 (W20) group under the auspices of the G20, said these proposals had been discussed for two weeks with representatives of G20 countries prior to the summit.

"We had a long discussion about refugees… We are now expecting some precise solutions," the business leader said. She added that more women should participate in political decision-making to move forward on the migrant issue.

Turkey is a key transit country for thousands of refugees fleeing conflicts in Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East. The European Union has been pressing Ankara to stem the outflow of migrants through its northern border into Europe.