European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has proposed a plan to help Turkey manage the 2.2 million Syrian refugees by sending humanitarian aid and additional money from the 4.2 billion Euro EU regional trust fund.

On October 5th, Juncker met with Turkish President Erdoğan during his visit to Brussels, and the leaders agreed in principle to the action plan. If the details are agreed, the plan would strengthen protection for the victims of human trafficking and there would be more cooperation between Greece and Turkey’s coast guards. The plan aims to protect vulnerable groups like unaccompanied children.

Turkey has already spent 6.75 billion Euros on the Syrian and Iraqi refugee crisis, according to the EU Commission.

Thousands of refugees are fleeing the civil war in Syria, passing through Turkey to Greece or Bulgaria, or taking desperate sea journeys on rickety boats run by traffickers.

Meanwhile, the war in Syria rages on, with Russia being the latest world power to join - on Syrian president Bashar al Assad’s side. This has been criticised by the US and its allies, which say they reject Russia’s attacks on non-ISIS militants.

“We reject #Russia’s theory that everybody opposed to Asad is a terrorist,” says the US Embassy in Syria via Twitter.