Turkey delivers $5 bln worth of aid to Syrian refugees in Turkey

Source:Xinhua Published: 2015-1-7 15:48:12

The Turkish government has delivered 5 billion US dollars worth of aid to the Syrian refugees in Turkey, the state-run Anatolian news agency reported on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, Turkish Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD) Director General Fuat Oktay signed an agreement with UNHCR in Ankara to provide humanitarian services to needy Syrian refugees.

Oktay said there are currently more than 1.6 million Syrian refugees hosted by Turkey and 227,000 of them are registered in camps around the country.

Under the agreement signed by AFAD and UNHCR, Turkey and the UN refugee agency will cooperate to deliver 12 mobile clinics, 10 ambulances and 10 vaccination units.

Bela Szombati, deputy head of the EU delegation to Turkey, said the EU appreciates Turkey's sheltering of the Syrian refugees, who were forced to leave their country, adding that "the EU will continue to support and help Turkey in hosting Syrian refugees."

The Syrian crisis has created one of the largest refugee exoduses in recent history with no end yet in sight.

According to recently released UN figures, 3.2 million Syrian refugees have fled to neighboring countries and North Africa since 2011.

Posted in: Europe

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