Japan to Allocate $810Mln to Help Refugees from Syria, Iraq

Japan reportedly will allocate $810 million to assist refugees from the Middle East.

TOKYO (Sputnik) — Japan will allocate $810 million to assist refugees from the Middle East, primary from Syria and Iraq, local media reported on Monday.

According to local NHK-1 radio station, the Japanese refugee assistance plan is expected to be presented by the country's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the UN General Assembly session in New York on Tuesday.

Part of the funds will be allocated to assist Lebanon, hosting some 1.5 million Syrian refugees, and to the Balkan countries used by refugees as a transit route on their way to more prosperous Western Europe.

The Syrian civil war is responsible for the highest refugee population in the world, with over 4 million refugees having fled Syria to neighbouring Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq, and Egypt, according to the UN data. In recent months, hundreds of thousands of Syrians fled to the European Union.

The European Commission estimates that some 500,000 asylum seekers have arrived in the European Union since the beginning of 2015.