EU agrees Turkey refugee deal

Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka tweeted during a meeting with his 27 EU counterparts: "Agreement with Turkey approved. All illegal migrants who arrive to Greece from Turkey starting March 20 will be returned!"

Finnish Prime Minister Juha Sipila also tweeted from inside the meeting that the Turkey refugee agreement had been approved.

All refugees and all migrants arriving in Europe via Greece after March 20 would be returned to Turkey after individual assessments that are in full compliance with international law, an EU official said, on the condition of anonymity.

In return, the EU would be expected to resettle Syrian refugees already in Turkish camps starting from April 4.

The EU has also agreed to accelerate Turkey’s accession process by opening Chapter 33 on Financial and Budgetary provisions by June 30.

Turkey is hosting the largest number of Syrian refugees in the world and has spent more than seven billion euros ($7.7 billion) meeting their needs, according to European Commission figures released last year.

Ankara has also requested visa-free travel for its citizens by the end of June, speeding up its accession talks and an additional three billion euros ($3.3 billion) to meet the needs of Syrian refugees in Turkey.

Under the agreement, the EU has also agreed to speed up the disbursement of three billion euros already pledged to meet the needs of Syrian refugees in Turkey and to within one week identify jointly a list of concrete projects under this facility.

Over the past year, hundreds of thousands of refugees have crossed the Aegean Sea to reach Greece. This has placed a huge strain on the austerity-hit EU member and threatened the EU’s internal open-border system, as countries to the north of Greece impose frontier restrictions

Source: The Journal of Turkish Weekly