The human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Tawakkol Karman has called on the West to keep doors open to refugees and support their right for freedom, justice, democracy and a decent life.

This came in a speech at a women-related seminar under title “Women between Displacement, Asylum and Immigration" organized by the Tawakkol Karman International Foundation on Thursday in Istanbul, Turkey.

"It is not reasonable to punish people because of a tyrannical ruler wanting to govern them by force, violence, tyranny and corruption," said Tawakkol Karman.

Karman renewed her call on the international community to prosecute Syria’s Bashar al-Assad and Myanmar’s government and military leaders, and bring them to the International Criminal Court for war crimes against humanity.

"I urge the international community – just we (Nobel laureates) did during our visit to the Rohingya refugee camps- to prosecute the Myanmar government and military leaders before the International Criminal Court as war criminals and perpetrators of massacres and crimes against humanity," she demanded.

Mrs. Karman described the situation in Syria as tragic, explaining that Bashar al-Assad has killed at least half a million people and displaced more than 10 million people.

Additionally, she called on the West to keep its borders open to refugees and respond to their demands for freedom, justice, democracy and decent living.

“Meeting demands for freedom, justice, democracy and decent life can not be achieved under corrupt tyrannical regimes that make terrorism to oppress the aspirations of peoples.” 

In this context, she accused Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates of being directly involved in planning and supporting the coup carried out by ousted president and the Iranian-backed Houthi militia.

“The UAE and Saudi Arabia seek to achieve their dirty goals by devastating Yemen and starving its people under the pretext of fighting the coup and supporting the legitimacy there,” she added.

For her part, the executive director of Tawakkol Karman International Foundation Misk al-Junaid stated that there is a deep gap between humanitarian issues and media institutions, stressing that “most of the nation's media is still absent from our real reality and fateful issues.”

"We need to hold more activities, and to urge people to do good, support and advocate the oppressed in our stricken areas," al-Junaid continued. 

The seminar put the spotlight on women’s situation in Myanmar, Syria and Yemen, and focused on the conditions of displaced women and refugees in Turkey, looking forward to work more actively with the Turkish government to improve these conditions, according to the organizers.

During the whole seminar, three main topics come into focus, including the latest developments regarding Syrian refugee and displaced women and the opportunities and challenges they face, as well as the repercussions of the war and the siege on women in Yemen. 

The event brought together more than 100 human rights and media personalities from various official, media, civil and legal institutions and Arab communities.