EU Announces Additional One Billion Euros to Turkey

The European Union will provide Turkey with an additional one billion euros to assist Ankara in addressing the influx of refugees from Syria.

“An additional one billion euros for 2024 is on its way,” European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen said at a joint news conference in Ankara with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the AFB reported.

The funds would support the healthcare and education needs of refugees in Turkey and “contribute to migration and border management, including voluntary returns of Syrian refugees,” she said.

There are nearly three million refugees who fled across the border after the unrest began in Syria in 2011.

Ankara is hoping the shift in power in Damascus will allow many of them to return home.

“As things evolve on the ground, we can adapt this one billion to the new needs that might occur in Syria,” Von der Leyen said.

Since 2012, the European Union has provided nearly 10 billion euros in funding to Turkey to support it with migration.

In 2016, Ankara and Brussels inked a controversial deal under which the EU agreed to offer money in exchange for Turkey taking back any irregular migrants reaching Europe.