WASHINGTON
Vice President Joe Biden announced nearly $135 million in additional humanitarian aid for Syrian refugees while in Istanbul on Saturday.
“The new funding will help feed vulnerable people inside Syria, Syrian refugees in Turkey and Syrian refugees in other neighboring countries,” the White House said in a statement. “Turkey has generously committed substantial portions of its national resources to hosting an estimated 1.6 million refugees from Syria.”
The White House further expressed its gratitude to Turkey for keeping its borders open during the Syrian conflict, noting that more than 190,000 Syrians fled their hometown of Kobani following an Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant offensive earlier this year.
The more than $132 million that Biden announced will go to the United Nations World Food Program, with nearly $11 million of that going to the program’s activities in Turkey.
An additional $2 million will be provided to the Turkish Red Crescent to provide food for Syrian refugees from Kobani.
“The work of WFP and the Turkish Red Crescent are critical to meeting the emergency food needs of Syrians seeking shelter in Turkish camps and urban settings,” the White House said, using the acronym for the World Food Program.
It added that the U.S. intends to resettle some 7,000 refugees from Turkey in 2015, saying that the U.S. program there is “one of our largest” around the globe.
Biden’s announcement brings total U.S. assistance for Syrian refugees to more than $3 billion since the crisis began in March 2011, including more than $222 million for international organizations working with the Turkish government.
www.aa.com.tr/en
