At a cost of $500 million each month, Turkey staggers under growing refugee burden
Turkey’s spending on refugees has soared by an astonishing $1.5 billion in three months, and that figure doesn't include many other related costs.
On July 9, during an address to foreign ambassadors in Ankara, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey had spent more than $6 billion to take in 2 million refugees, including 1.7 million Syrians and 300,000 Iraqis.
On Oct. 5, at a business gathering in Belgium, he noted Turkey’s spending for refugees has exceeded $7.5 billion.
How did the refugee bill swell by $1.5 billion in three months? To better grasp this staggering increase in such a short time, it’s worth recalling that the $6 billion was spent over four years. Are the figures inaccurate, or has the number of refugees shot up beyond what is publicly known?
There is nothing wrong with the financial figures. The main factor behind the skyrocketing sum is the abrupt increase in the number of refugees.
