Turkish Deputy FM: "EU must boost funding for Syrian refugees"

Turkish Deputy FM: "EU must boost funding for Syrian refugees"
# 14 December 2019 18:48 (UTC +04:00)

The European Union should spend more than the 6 billion euros ($6.6 billion) already allotted to fund Syrian refugees in Turkey, and speed up the influx of cash, the Turkish Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Director for EU Affairs, Faruk Kaymakci said on Dec. 14, APA reports citing Daily Sabah.

EU funds have been alotted in order to support the roughly 3.5 million Syrian refugees who have fled across the border to Turkey in the last eight years, over the course of which hundreds of thousands have been killed in the civil war raging across the country. In turn, Turkey has agreed to halt further immigration to Europe.

"The flow of funds should be sped up and the amount of funding should be increased," said Kaymakci.

"As long as the crisis is ongoing, we have to work together. 6 billion euros will not solve the problem when it is finally all spent," Kaymakci told reporters in Istanbul.

The EU, which set up the funding in 2015, says more than 5.6 billion euros have been allocated, more than 3.5 billion contracted and more than 2.4 billion disbursed.

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