Turkish agency sends $208M in aid to Syrian refugees

A Turkish aid agency on Tuesday said it had provided more than $208 million in humanitarian assistance to Syrian refugees since the beginning of the civil war in 2011.

The Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH) said between March 2011 and July 2017 it had sent 820,082,233 Turkish liras ($208,539,678) in aid to the refugees.

Also, 12,000 truck-loads of aid were dispatched to Syrians living in Turkey's southeastern border cities and inside Syria.

The aid comprised of basic healthcare, shelter and education needs, as the foundation runs an orphanage on both sides of the Syrian-Turkish border.

It has established six container cities and 25 tent cities, which provide shelter to 50,000 people.

In Turkey's southeastern Reyhanli district of Hatay province, the foundation established a large orphanage which accommodates 990 children.

It provides education to 160,000 Syrian students with its 29 schools and a university.

For healthcare needs, the agency sent 25 truck-loads of medicine and dispatched 683 ambulances for the refugees.

The statement added that through its humanitarian diplomacy 2,000 prisoners and injured were released from Syrian prisons.

Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since 2011, when the Bashar al-Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests with unexpected ferocity.

Since then, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed in the fighting and more than 10 million displaced, according to the UN.

Turkey hosts 3.2 million Syrian refugees, more than any other country in the world.