Merkel visits Turkey as fleeing Syrians wait at border

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is visiting Ankara to discuss measures to stem the flow of refugees bound for Europe, as tens of thousands of Syrians remained stranded at the border with Turkey after fleeing a Russia-backed government offensive in Aleppo.

Merkel, whose country let in more than a million asylum seekers last year, will be holding talks with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in the Turkish capital on Monday.

The EU has promised $3.3bn of aid in return for Ankara's help in stopping the flow of new arrivals on its shores, most of whom make their way through Turkey.

The bloc's leaders have said Ankara is obliged to keep its frontiers open to refugees, while also pressing for tighter border controls for those entering Europe.

Turkey's Oncupinar border crossing, which faces the Bab al-Salama frontier post inside Syria, remained closed on Sunday as refugees, mostly women and children, gathered there for a third day waiting for the gate to open.

Al Jazeera's Stefanie Dekker, reporting from the Kilis at the Syria-Turkey border, said trucks carrying scaffolding were seen passing through the border on Sunday.

"We know they are building tents and facilities for the thousands of people who are camped on the other side of the border," she said. 

"But there is no movement on this side, it's very quiet and the border is still closed."

The governor of Turkey's Kilis border province, Suleyman Tapsiz, said that Turkey was taking care of the 30,000-plus refugees who had gathered around the nearby Syrian city of Azaz over the space of 48 hours.

Another 70,000 may head for the frontier if Russian air strikes and Syrian regime military advances continued in Aleppo, he added.

Carrying their few belongings, Syrians queued in the cold and rain in squalid camps waiting for tents being distributed by aid agencies, the AFP news agency reported. Others are reportedly sleeping in fields and on roads, it added.