The European Union has not met its financial obligations to help Syrian refugees in line with its migration agreement, Turkey  in the meantime allocated about $35 billion for these same refugees, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday.

"We have spent $35 billion on the needs of refugees, whose number in our country totals about 4 million. The European Union has pledged to provide material assistance, but has not kept the promise, contributing just a symbolic sum. Turkey is the country that provides the most humanitarian aid. This is a matter of conscience, not of money," Erdogan said while delivering a speech in Istanbul, UP reported.

In March 2016, the European Union and Turkey concluded a migration deal in which they agreed that Syrian refugees arriving in Greece would be returned to Turkey if their claim for asylum was rejected, while Syrian asylum seekers in Turkey would be resettled in Europe on a one-for-one basis. Brussels, in turn, vowed to provide financial aid to the country to cover the costs of migrant reception.