Kemal Kilicdaroglu, a rival to Recep Erdogan in Turkey’s presidential election, stepped up his speech on migration on Thursday, promising to send home all refugees from the country if he wins the May 28 election, Reuters reported.

Kemal Kilicdaroglu to wear steel vest after reports he may be attackedPhoto: Veysel Altun / AFP / Profimedia

Kılıçdaroğlu, the Social Democrat candidate from the six-party opposition alliance, won just 45 percent of the vote in Sunday’s presidential election, while incumbent President Recep Erdogan was defied in opinion polls and came close to winning a new term in the first round with 49.5 percent. voices

In a speech on Thursday at the headquarters of the Republican People’s Party, the political formation he leads, Kilicdaroglu sharply criticized Recep Erdogan’s migration policy.

“Erdogan, you deliberately left 10 million refugees in Turkey. You are even putting Turkish citizenship up for sale to get imported votes,” he said without providing evidence of this.

“I am announcing here: I will send all the refugees home as soon as I am elected president,” he declared.

Why migrants are at the center of presidential elections in Turkey

Kilicdaroglu’s new comments come after he said on the campaign trail that he plans to send home Syrian refugees in Turkey within two years after reaching an agreement with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the United Nations to guarantee their safety.

The increased tone on refugees is seen by analysts as a direct signal to Sinan Ohan, the nationalist candidate who came third in Sunday’s election with 5.2 percent of the vote.

Both Erdogan and Kilicdaroglu are trying to win his support, but the current Turkish president is considered more likely because his policies are more in line with Ohan’s.

Despite Kilicdaroglu’s comments, official figures show that Turkey hosts only 4 million refugees, but it is the largest country in the world.

In recent years, refugees and immigrants in Turkey have become the object of public outrage in a context in which the population has begun to blame inflation and the dramatic devaluation of the lira, the consequences of the monetary policy imposed by Erdogan on the central bank in Ankara, at the expense of the money they came with the country