ANKARA, October 20 (RIA Novosti) - The number of Syrian refugees in Turkey has reached 1.6 million, Fuat Oktay, director general of the Turkish Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency, said Monday.
"There are 1.6 million Syrian refugees in Turkey as of today. The number of [refugees] from Kobani is 180,000 and this flow continues," Oktay is quoted as saying by the Turkish Anadolu news agency.
Oktay noted that no other country has provided this much help to refugees from Syria. More than 20 refugee camps have been set up in ten Turkish provinces, where displaced persons are provided with shelter, food and medical care, and children are able to attend school. However, only a fifth of the Syrian refugees are staying in these camps.
Turkey has spent some $4 billion on aid to displaced persons from Syria. Local authorities have declared an open door policy, though some Turkish cities have seen protests over the influx of Syrian refugees.
Syria has been torn apart by civil war for more than three years. The Syrian Army is fighting multiple rebel groups, including the Islamic State (IS), which for the past several weeks has besieged Kobani, one of the largest towns in the Kurdish region of Syria bordering Turkey.
