Between April 2016 and January 2024, almost 41,000 Syrian refugees from Turkey were resettled in the EU. And since 2016, the return to Turkey of 2,140 migrants from the Greek islands has been organised under the statement, according to the European Commission’s Eighth Annual Report of the Facility for Refugees in Turkey, dated 19 December last.
In it, the Commission takes stock of this programme, launched in 2016, between the EU’s financial contributions to support the reception of refugees in Turkey and the so-called “One-for-One” resettlement scheme, which consists of returning to Turkey a person who has arrived in the EU but is not eligible for asylum, and resettling a refugee in the EU.
On this aspect of the programme for the rapid return of all migrants not in need of protection, the Commission notes in its report that as the Turkish authorities “have not revoked their decision of March 2020 to suspend return operations under the Statement due to the Covid-19 pandemic, no return operations have taken place since then despite repeated requests from the European Commission and the Greek authorities”.
In terms of EU financial support, the report states that by the end of 2023, more than €5.3 billion of the €6 billion pledged from 2016 had been disbursed.
The EU has also disbursed additional aid outside the Facility. In February 2024, the European Council decided to allocate €2 billion, in particular to support Syrian refugees in Turkey until 2027. In December, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also announced a further €1 billion (see EUROPE 13547/14). The total amount of EU aid allocated to refugees in Turkey since 2011 is almost €12.5 billion.
Link to the report: https://aeur.eu/f/f0q (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)