The EU is to give Turkey an extra 1 billion euros ($1.05 billion) in funding to care for the Syrian refugees it is hosting, European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen said on Tuesday, Agence France-Presse reported.
“An additional 1 billion euros for 2024 is on its way,” she said at a joint news conference in Ankara with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
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.
The 🇪🇺🇹🇷 relationship is important.
Our economic relationship is growing stronger every year.
And Türkiye remain a key partner on migration.
An extra €1 billion for 2024 is on its way to support Türkiye’s efforts to host Syrian refugees. pic.twitter.com/cr3Tfaz7l9
— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) December 17, 2024
Turkey is hosting nearly 3 million refugees who fled across the border in search of safety after the civil war began 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 1 billion to the new needs that might occur in Syria,” she said.
In recent years, the refugee question has generated increasing domestic tension in Turkey as the country lives through an enduring economic crisis, which has hurt Erdoğan politically.
Within days of Assad’s fall, Turkey quickly moved to significantly expand its border crossing capacities to allow them to return.
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.