400k Syria refugee kids in Turkey out of school: Ankara

A Turkish official says nearly two out three Syrian refugee children living in Turkey are currently out of school and at risk of being exploited by gangs.

Turkish deputy under secretary for education, Yusuf Buyuk, said on Friday that some 400,000 out of the total 640,000 Syrian refugee children in Turkey were not in school.

"If we cannot educate these students, they will fall into the wrong hands, they are going to be exploited by gangs, criminals," he said.

This as according to the Turkish official, Ankara aims to have some 270,000 Syrian children in school by January and 370,000 by the end of the year.

Figures show that there are currently some 2.2 million Syrian refugees living in Turkey.

Last month, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on European Union (EU) nations, which have received hundreds of thousands of refugees, to make more efforts to resolve the refugee crisis.

Thousands of Syrians are fleeing a foreign-backed militancy in their country by entering Turkey, before trying to gain entry to other neighboring nations and Europe. Nearly 3,000 refugees have died on their way to European countries this year.

The foreign-sponsored conflict in Syria, which started in 2011, has killed more than 250,000 people. Millions of others have also become wounded or displaced.

Turkey and a number of other countries have been accused of supporting and training militants fighting against the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad.

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