UK aid for Turkey to help address impact of the Syria conflict
Britain to contribute up to £275 million over the next two years, as part of wider EU package of support.
Syrian Kurdish refugees cross into Turkey, September 2014. According to UN figures, there are now more than 2 million Syrian refugees registered in Turkey. Picture: EC/ECHO
The UK will contribute up to £275 million over the next two years to help Turkey address the consequences of the Syria conflict. This bilateral support will contribute to a wider European effort – coordinated through an intergovernmental agreement – that will lever support from other EU member states. Taken together with €500 million from the European Commission it will create a €3 billion package in total.
This new support was announced at the Valletta Summit in Malta where European and African leaders met to develop a co-ordinated approach to tackle the migration crisis.
The UK has been clear on the need to work closely with Turkey to address the consequences of the Syria conflict, including the refugee crisis created as a result. At the October European Council, EU leaders agreed an action plan that now needs to be implemented. According to UN figures, there are more than 2 million Syrian refugees registered in Turkey.
The extra support the UK will provide for Turkey is expected to be targeted at providing immediate humanitarian support as well as funding for schools, hospitals and housing required to support refugees left homeless by the conflict in Syria and help communities hosting refugees.
This builds on the UK’s existing funding, with the Department for International Development (DFID) providing £34 million to humanitarian projects in Turkey since the beginning of the Syria crisis response. This is providing Syrian refugees with food, basic commodities, clean drinking water and health assistance.
Notes to Editors
- At the Valletta migration conference, held on 11-12 November 2015, the UK also announced a new £200 million package of support for Africa to help address migration, which includes: * Programmes designed to help vulnerable people build greater resilience to the impacts of short term economic and environmental pressures; * Humanitarian responses for those forcibly displaced by recent crises; * A reformed approach for refugees facing many years living outside their home countries as a result of protracted crises, that enables self-reliance, access to services and a good education for their children, whilst they await a more durable solution, including possible return to countries of origin; * Economic development programmes to provide jobs, skills and opportunities in key regions of origin for young men and women who could be driven to look for economic opportunities elsewhere
- The UK is also contributing around £2 million to the EU’s £1.3 billion Africa Trust Fund which will focus on tackling the root causes of migration in the Sahel, North Africa and the Horn of Africa.The funding will be used to tackle the lack of jobs, growth and opportunities for people in their home countries and in the region. The UK’s contribution will be allocated to countries in the Horn of Africa – the largest source of migration into the UK from Africa.
- The latest support builds on the UK’s work in Africa to bring stability, jobs and livelihoods to irregular migrants’ countries of origin, helping tackle the root causes of the pressures to migrate.