EU sending $632M more for refugees in Turkey

By Handan Kazanci

ISTANBUL (AA) – The European Union will send an additional €560 million ($632 million) to support refugees in Turkey as well as for protecting the country’s borders, the bloc announced Tuesday.

The funds will "support inclusive quality education for refugees in Turkey and access to higher education as well as for migration and border protection as part of an additional €3 billion announced by (European Commission) President von der Leyen in June 2021 to continue EU assistance to refugees in Turkey for the period of 2021-2023,” said a commission statement.

A total of €530 million will support “quality inclusive education of refugees in Turkey and access to higher education, notably through scholarships,” through the Promoting Integration of Syrian Kids into Turkish Education System (PIKTES) program, which started in 2016, the statement added.

The program “provides for teacher salaries, transportation costs, education equipment and supplies, provides catch-up and back-up classes to students, Turkish language trainings, teachers' trainings, school guidance and counselling programme, early childhood education while promoting social cohesion in a fully integrated way,” it added.

Also, the Conditional Cash Transfer for Education (CCTE) Project will help the schooling of some 695,000 refugee children through cash transfers. The grant will also support “refugees' access to higher education including via scholarships and related support services,” the statement added.

Another €30 million will provide “support to help tackle migration and border challenges,” the statement said, adding “capacity building and improving the standards and conditions for migrants in Turkey's hosting centres, as well as improvements in addressing migration-related issues at Turkish airports.”

The bloc said that the financing “aims to improve the management of reception and hosting centres in line with human rights standards and gender-sensitive approaches. It ensures the safe and dignified transfer of irregular migrants, access to quality services, and hosting and accommodation in appropriate conditions.”

According to the statement, the EU supports Turkey’s Migration Management Directorate General’s “efforts via the effective implementation of Turkey's Strategy Document and National Action Plan on Irregular Migration (2021-2025).”

“The action plan should strengthen cooperation with countries of origin and destination. It will also address the promotion of regular migration, an important contribution to efforts to prevent irregular migration,” it added.

“A joint intervention with the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) to improve inter-agency cooperation and increase, in a sustainable manner, the capacity of migration and border management agencies operating at airports,” it said.

In 2016, the EU and Turkey reached an agreement to stop irregular refugee flows and improve the conditions of Syrian refugees in Turkey.

The bloc pledged €6 billion ($7 billion) aid for the refugees in the country and disbursed around €4 billion, according to EU figures.

Turkey complained that the EU failed to uphold its end of the deal and did not send all the money it promised, and only belatedly.

Turkey hosts around 4 million refugees, the largest refugee community in the world, including 3.6 million registered Syrian refugees and 370,000 registered refugees from other countries.