DHAKA: Officials in the EU have urged Turkey to let in tens of thousands of Syrian refugees trapped on its border at Kilis after fleeing fighting.

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said there was a moral, if not legal, duty to provide protection.

Turkey says the refugees are receiving food and shelter inside Syria and there is no need to allow them to cross.

About 35,000 Syrians have fled a Syrian government offensive on rebel-held positions near Aleppo.

Mogherini said the EU was providing funding to Turkey to make sure it had the ‘means, the instruments, the resources to protect and to host people that are seeking asylum’, reports the BBC.

In November, the EU clinched a deal with Turkey, offering it €3bn ($3.3bn) to care for Syrian refugees on Turkish soil.

Mogherini’s call was echoed by EU Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn and Dutch foreign minister Bert Koenders, whose country currently holds the EU presidency.

‘I look at these images of people standing at the Turkish border and I just wanted to underline the message people who are in humanitarian need should be allowed in,’ said Koenders.

BDST: 1220 HRS, FEB 07, 2016
RR