ISTANBUL, Aug. 23 (Xinhua) -- Turkey is known for extending hospitality to 3.6 million Syrians, but recent incidents and the exodus from Afghanistan are now testing its refugee policies amid anti-immigrant sentiments, experts have said.

The 10-year coexistence between locals and Syrians who had fled the civil war in their homeland was fairly unproblematic until two weeks ago in the capital city Ankara, home to an important refugee community.

A group of Syrians fought with locals, leading to the death of a Turkish youth. Later, hundreds of people gathered in the low-income district of Altindag, vandalizing and setting fire to the businesses, apartments, and cars of Syrians.

Around 150 assailants were detained amid general disapproval of the attacks, showing the mood towards refugees had soured.

"We can seize this watershed attack as an important opportunity to rebuild Turkey's migratory policy, which has crumbled," Metin Corabatir, a prominent refugee expert, told Xinhua.

He said Turkey does not recognize immigrants as refugees, granting them Temporary Protection Status, which affords them fewer rights.

"Turkey has made huge sacrifices to host the Syrians. But since the outset, they have been treated as visitors who would soon return, yet most of them are here to stay. So there is a need for a clear strategy and integration policies," Corabatir, head of the Research Center for Asylum and Immigration, said.

Anti-migrant hostility is building up because Turkey has been suffering from economic troubles since 2018, with currency devaluation and rampant inflation. The nation's woes have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Apart from Syrians, Turkey hosts thousands of refugees of different nationalities.

On Friday, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the number of Afghan refugees in Turkey is 300,000 and he was "aware of the discontent caused by irregular immigration in the country."

For over a month, a steady influx of Afghans has reportedly entered Turkey from the eastern Iranian border, and with the Taliban seizing control of Afghanistan, Turkey seeks to prevent a refugee exodus with harsher measures.

Erdogan warned that the Taliban's victory opens the door to more refugees heading to his country, wanting to reach European countries for a better life.

"The arrival of Afghan asylum seekers and refugees to Turkey is inevitable, but the number depends on an ambiguous factor, which is the Taliban," Omar Kadkoy, a migration policy analyst at the Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey, told Xinhua.

Turkey is undoubtedly in a difficult position, Kadkoy noted, indicating that the images of crossings at the border with Iran are exacerbating the existing social tensions to a point where a great backlash is possible.

Meanwhile, European countries are also trying to prevent the arrival of more refugees, seeking to prevent a repetition of the crisis that led to a financial deal in 2016 between the European Union (EU) and Ankara.

The EU is now considering 3.5 billion U.S. dollars in funding to Turkey for refugee aid and migration projects.

While international financing has helped, it has been far from enough to cover the entire cost of the refugees, experts said, calling on Ankara to face reality and work towards social cohesion, as surveys point out that a majority of Syrians will likely stay in Turkey.

Kadkoy, a Syrian immigrant himself, said negative sentiments about Syrians have grown in the past few years. "A decent segment of Turks believes there is a cultural incompatibility with Syrians," he said.

"This means the government has not enacted any integration policy," Kadkoy said, insisting that such policies would contribute to reducing social strains.

Otherwise, he cautioned, overcoming socio-cultural tensions without a long-term vision about the future of Syrians in Turkey won't end the recurring clashes. Enditem

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