The EU on Dec. 17 announced the finalizing contracting process of €6 billion ($7.3 billion) in aid for refugees hosted by Turkey, focused on the 4 million Syrian refugees who since 2011 fled the war in their home country for safe shelter in Turkey.
“The EU Delegation to Turkey signs the final eight contracts under the Facility for Refugees in Turkey [FRIT] this week. Under the contracts, the EU provides €780 million in support to refugees in terms of basic needs, health care, protection, municipal infrastructure and vocational and technical education and training, employment and support to private sector, SMEs and entrepreneurship,” said the EU Delegation to Turkey in a statement.
In 2016 the EU and Turkey concluded a deal on refugees in which the EU promised to provide €6 billion in financial assistance to be used by the Turkish government to finance projects for Syrian refugees, and Turkey agreed to help stop irregular migrants from heading to Europe.
In the four years since, Turkey has complained that the EU failed to allocate the full €6 billion as pledged, as well as other promises, but today’s finalization seems to complete the monetary plank of the deal.
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The European Union has allocated a multibillion-euro sum to Turkey to fund the welfare of refugees hosted by the country, after Ankara pledged to stop the flow of illegal migrants and refugees to Europe.
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In 2015, at the peak of the biggest refugee crisis since World War II, Europe saw a million people arriving, mostly from the Middle East and North Africa. The following spring, the European Council reached an agreement with Turkey, which hosts about 3.6 million refugees from Syria.
Ankara was to accept the return of migrants arriving in Greece, and, in return, was promised €6 billion ($6.79 billion) to accommodate migrants, as well as visa-free travel in the EU for Turks.