- Syrian Refugees In Turkey To Get Debit Cards

- Agencies (IRW) – The European Commission Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO) in Turkey said on Saturday that more than 850,000 refugees will receive special debit cards by August financed by the European Union and implemented by the Turkish Red Crescent.

ECHO head Jane Lewis told Anadolu Agency that the target was to access over a million refugees by September.

“As of this month, over 850,000 refugees under temporary international protection will be receiving the card and receiving the monthly transfer,” Lewis said.

“We hope that by September, we’ll have a million people under the program,” Lewis said.

“However, the actual target is 1.314 million, depending on who is eligible to receive the card.”

Lewis also said the monthly transfer for each refugee, staying out of the refugee camps and registered by the regional migration office directorate, had increased from 100 Turkish liras to 120 Turkish liras per month.

Working with Turkish and United Nations officials, the EU Humanitarian Aid Commission launched the program to curb migrant flows to the bloc and help Turkey's nearly 3 million refugees, most of whom are Syrians.

The debit cards let refugees shop at merchants with Turkish Halkbank debit card machines and withdraw money from ATMs.