Skip to content
Support Us

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

Chris Radburn

Refugees in Turkey are to be given debit cards by the EU

They did not give details of how much each card would be worth.

THE EU HAS announced plans to distribute debit cards to refugees in Turkey to help them meet basic needs as part of a multi-billion euro aid deal with Ankara to curb migrant flows to Europe.

Working with Turkish and UN officials, the European Union said it will launch next month the programme to distribute EU-funded debit cards that will help up to one million of Turkey’s nearly three million refugees, most of them Syrian.

“The refugees in need of humanitarian assistance will receive an electronic debit card,” EU Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Christos Stylianides told a press conference in Brussels to announce the plan.

They will get monthly cash transfers to the card. And of course they will be able to buy what they need to put bread on the table for their families, to provide a roof for their families, to send their children to school instead of being forced to send them to work.

Stylianides did not give details of how much each card would be worth.

He said the €348-million-backed plan is aimed at “the most vulnerable” and was more dignified than offering food hand-outs and will also boost the economy of Turkish communities where the refugees live.

The humanitarian scheme, the Cypriot commissioner said, was developed with the UN World Food Programme (WFP) as well as Turkish ministers and the Turkish Red Crescent.

Nearly four years ago, the WFP and the Red Crescent launched an experimental project in which thousands of refugees began receiving cards charged with aid credits rather than boxes of basic supplies.

The EU and Turkey have boosted cooperation since they struck a deal in March to curb the influx of migrants that has plunged Europe into its biggest refugee crisis since the end of World War II.

- © AFP, 2016

Read: Warplanes have dropped suspected chlorine bombs on a crowded neighbourhood in Aleppo

Author
View 84 comments
Close
84 Comments
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Paul Doyle
    Favourite Paul Doyle
    Report
    Dec 28th 2016, 12:47 PM

    Please no one start with that 2016 crap… he’s 88 nanna was 96, Leonard coen was 79 or something… death happens get over it…

    86
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute KM TON
    Favourite KM TON
    Report
    Dec 28th 2016, 12:49 PM

    Two late Paul! Two late! If i die between now and Sunday, i ask of my loved ones, PLEASE PLEASE do not say ‘ God damn 2016′. I’m begging you!

    28
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Paul Doyle
    Favourite Paul Doyle
    Report
    Dec 28th 2016, 12:54 PM

    In 2 years time twink or some sh## will be hit by a 2016 Scania truck n people be like “2016 was just so cruel to the celebrity’s”

    35
    See 2 more replies ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Nucky
    Favourite Nucky
    Report
    Dec 28th 2016, 12:57 PM

    No n people be more like shut up ya sap….

    8
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute O Swetenham
    Favourite O Swetenham
    Report
    Dec 28th 2016, 2:20 PM

    You guys are too cool for school.

    13
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Mike Cantwell
    Favourite Mike Cantwell
    Report
    Dec 28th 2016, 12:45 PM

    RIP Anthony, I loved Dead As Doornails

    39
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Brian Mulligan
    Favourite Brian Mulligan
    Report
    Dec 28th 2016, 2:23 PM

    Do you remember the year when no one died, mad so it was….

    30
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Micheal OLainn
    Favourite Micheal OLainn
    Report
    Dec 28th 2016, 12:54 PM

    Anthony Cronin leaves behind him a great legacy of wonderful writing that will endure long after his desth.

    I would be disturbed if no talented people were to die. We are all human. Some of us die sooner than others but we all die, even the most talented and gifted of us.

    We notice the death of talented people more because they are in the public eye and can even be a backdrop to our lives but they, like us, are not immportal.

    26
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Shano
    Favourite Shano
    Report
    Dec 28th 2016, 1:55 PM

    Roll on 2017 when no celebrities will die at all.

    25
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Joe Geoghegan
    Favourite Joe Geoghegan
    Report
    Dec 28th 2016, 1:13 PM

    One of Ireland’s great intellectuals.

    19
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Anthony John Cotter
    Favourite Anthony John Cotter
    Report
    Dec 28th 2016, 1:29 PM

    Dead as Doornails is a classic, he was always worth listening to in interviews with the incredible company he kept.

    17
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Diarmuid Lucey
    Favourite Diarmuid Lucey
    Report
    Dec 28th 2016, 12:46 PM

    Who’s next? 2016 has not been a good year!

    11
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Fox in the Box
    Favourite Fox in the Box
    Report
    Dec 28th 2016, 12:47 PM

    @Diarmuid Lucey:

    What an original comment

    66
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Peter Martin
    Favourite Peter Martin
    Report
    Dec 28th 2016, 3:26 PM

    Met him back about 20 years ago. A very nice man. Condolences to his wife and daughter.

    9
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Paul Devlin
    Favourite Paul Devlin
    Report
    Dec 28th 2016, 4:04 PM

    RIP. Dead as Doornails is a classic. When people talk about the good old days, get them to read it

    7
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Eye_c_u
    Favourite Eye_c_u
    Report
    Dec 28th 2016, 2:40 PM

    Curse of 2016 strikes again

    4
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Christopher Gardiner
    Favourite Christopher Gardiner
    Report
    Dec 28th 2016, 3:23 PM

    Who is he?

    2
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Eric Bobrie
    Favourite Eric Bobrie
    Report
    Dec 28th 2016, 10:45 PM

    French académicien Michel Deon Who lives in Conemarra is dead too. Bad Day for littérature

    2
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Louise Brierley
    Favourite Louise Brierley
    Report
    Dec 29th 2016, 1:47 AM

    ” Dead as Doornails “is a classic, excellent read, but rather dated and somewhat indecipherable today to people not necessarily in tune with 50s/60s Dublin Bohemia.

    1
Submit a report
Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
Thank you for the feedback
Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.
JournalTv
News in 60 seconds