EU to spend hundreds of millions more on refugees in Turkey

European Union plans to spend hundreds of millions of euros over next year helping refugees living in Turkey, most of m people who fled war in Syria.

EU’s executive body, European Commission, said Wednesday that it is extending two programs, one that provides cash assistance to refugees in Turkey to meet ir basic needs and or that provides funds to help educate children.

programs will be extended until early 2022 at a total cost of 485 million euros ($590 million).

commission said y provide much-needed cash to more than 1.8 million refugees and help educate more than 700,000 children. programs are mand by Turkish Red Crescent in partnership with Red Cross and UNICEF. Money does t go directly to Turkey's government.

Turkey is home to almost 4 million refugees. Around 70% are women and children, and overwhelming majority of refugees live outside migrant camps.

European Union relies on Turkey to stop migrants and refugees from trying to reach bloc's 27 member nations illegally. Well over a million people entered EU in 2015, overwhelming Greece and Italy and sparking one of bloc’s worst political crises.

In 2016, EU offered Turkey up to 6 billion euros ($7.3 billion) in aid for Syrian refugees on its territory, fast-tracked EU membership and visa-free travel to Europe for Turkish citizens if Turkey stopped migrants from trying to depart for Europe. number of arrivals dropped dramatically.

But in March, Turkish authorities began waving thousands of migrants through to Europe after dozens of Turkish soldiers were killed in fighting in rrn Syria. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan h sought European help in rrn Syria, but request was refused and he accused EU of reneging on its promises under 2016 deal.

EU leers in turn accused Erdogan of “blackmail” but n promised to review deal in an effort to end chaos at Europe’s borders.

According to European Commission, all 6 billion euros under EU-Turkey deal has been “committed and contracted, with close to 4 billion euros disbursed.” Part of money, 2.4 billion euros, was earmarked for humanitarian assistance and has been contracted out.