Erdogan says up to 250,000 people fleeing from Syria's Idlib towards Turkey

• Turkey hosts some 3.7 million Syrian refugees, the largest refugee population in the world.
• Turkey fears a new wave from Idlib, where up to 3 million Syrians live in the last rebel-held swathe of territory.

(Turkey) President Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday (January 2) that up to 250,000 migrants were fleeing from the northwestern Syrian region of Idlib towards Turkey, adding that Ankara was trying to prevent them from crossing its border.

Turkey hosts some 3.7 million Syrian refugees, the largest refugee population in the world. It fears a new wave from Idlib, where up to 3 million Syrians live in the last rebel-held swathe of territory, after Russian and Syrian government forces last month intensified their bombardment of targets in the region.

"Right now, 200,000 to 250,000 migrants are moving towards our borders. We are trying to prevent them with some measures, but it's not easy," Erdogan told a conference in Ankara.

The United Nations last week said 235,000 civilians had fled their homes in just two weeks between Dec 12 and 25. The Russian-led campaign that started in April 2019 had already forced at least 500,000 people to leave for areas closer to the border with Turkey, which Russian jets rarely hit.