Syrian Refugee Crisis: Turkey Set To Build 10 More Schools In Border Town

In response to the ongoing Syrian refugee crisis, Turkey is preparing to open 10 new “temporary education centers” for Syrian migrant children in addition to the 32 already open, Hurriyet Daily News, a daily newspaper in Turkey, reported Tuesday. The education centers are set to open in the Reyhanli district of the southern Hatay province, which borders Syria.

The Reyhanli Municipality and the Turkish Education Ministry are expected to open the education centers. Among the 65,000 Syrians that have relocated specifically to Reyhanli, roughly 41,000 of those refugees are school-aged children, according to Hurriyet.

Thousands of school-aged children are reportedly unable to enroll in school and the country has only received 25 percent of the funding it requested as part of the 2014 Regional Refugee Response Plan, Hurriyet reported. The plan, which was coordinated by the United Nations, brought together over 155 donors to help Syrian refugees and local communities hosting them in Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq.

Meanwhile, at least 34 people—including three children—drowned off Turkey’s Aegean coast Tuesday after their boat capsized, Al Jazeera reported. While their nationalities were not immediately known, in the past refugees have set off from Ayvalik, Turkey on boats headed toward the Greek island Lesbos.

Turkey has been bearing a large burden of the Syrian refugee crisis, which began in 2011. The country is host to 2.2 million Syrians and has spent roughly $8.5 billion on feeding and housing them, according to Al Jazeera. Turkey struck a deal at the end of November, promising to help with the flow of refugees to Europe in exchange for cash, visas and renewed talks of joining the EU. In 2014, Turkey also experienced an unprecedented spike in asylum applications from Afghans, Iraqis and Iranians, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.