European Union leaders approved a controversial deal with Turkey on Friday
intended to halt illegal migration flows to Europe in return for financial and
political rewards for Ankara.
The accord aims to close the main route over which a million migrants and
refugees poured across the Aegean Sea to Greece before marching north to
Germany and Sweden in the last year. But deep doubts remain about whether it is
legal or workable.
After a morning of talks with Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu,
European Council President Donald Tusk recommended that the 28 EU member states
approve the text without changes and they rapidly agreed at a summit lunch in
Brussels.
"Agreement with Turkey approved. All illegal migrants who arrive to
Greece from Turkey starting March 20 will be returned!" Czech Prime
Minister Bohuslav Sobotka tweeted from inside the meeting.
A senior EU official said Davutoglu had indicated Ankara would accept the
proposal if the EU leaders approved it. He was expected to join the EU leaders
for a formal session soon.
Under the pact, Ankara would take back all illegal migrants who cross to
Greece, including Syrians, in return for the EU taking in thousands of Syrian
refugees directly from Turkey and rewarding it with more money, early visa-free
travel and progress in its EU membership negotiations.
Migrants who arrive in Greece from Sunday will be subject to being sent
back to Turkey once they are registered and their asylum claim is processed. A
senior Turkish official said the returns would begin on April 4 and
resettlement of Syrian refugees in Europe would begin simultaneously.
The EU also agreed to accelerate disbursement of 3 billion euros already
pledged in support for refugees in Turkey and to provide a further 3 billion by
2018 once Ankara came up with a list of projects that qualified for EU
assistance.
While the talks were in progress, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan accused
the EU of hypocrisy over migrants, human rights and terrorism after supporters
of the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) set up protest tents near the
summit venue.
Erdogan said Europe was "dancing in a minefield" by directly or
indirectly supporting terrorist groups.
"At a time when Turkey is hosting three million, those who are unable
to find space for a handful of refugees, who in the middle of Europe keep these
innocents in shameful conditions, must first look at themselves," he said
in a televised speech.
Facing a backlash from anti-immigration populists across Europe, the EU is
desperate to stem the influx but faced legal obstacles to blanket returns of
migrants to Turkey.
The summit discussions exposed considerable doubts among member states and
EU lawyers over whether a deal could be made legal under international law, and
human rights groups denounced the planned agreement as a sell-out of European
principles.
The EU leaders pressed Ankara to change its rules to extend international
standards of protection to non-Syrian migrants, a condition for Greece to be
able legally to return asylum seekers to Turkey.
"All new irregular migrants crossing from Turkey into Greek islands
from 20 March, 2016, will be returned to Turkey," the draft joint
EU-Turkey statement seen by Reuters said. "This will take place in full
accordance with EU and international law, thus excluding any kind of collective
expulsion."
It did not say whether this would entail changes in Turkish legislation.
CYPRUS ROADBLOCK SIDESTEPPED
Turkey's four-decade-old dispute with Cyprus had been a key stumbling
block. Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades insisted there could be no opening
of new "chapters" in Turkey's EU talks until Ankara allows Cypriot
traffic to its sea and airports - a result of a refusal to recognize the
Cypriot state.
But the issue was sidestepped because EU leaders agreed to open a
negotiating chapter that was not one of the five blocked by Nicosia. An EU
official said they would open chapter 33 on budget policy and accelerate
preparations for negotiations in other areas.
Much of the debate among EU leaders on Thursday focused on ensuring that a
plan that has outraged human rights groups could guarantee that those returned
to Turkey would receive full protection, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said.
Turkey's human rights record has drawn mounting criticism amid a crackdown
on Kurdish separatists, arrests of critical journalists and the seizure of its
best-selling newspaper.
EU officials said Greece also needed time to set up legal and
administrative structures to carry out the deportations and grant migrants
individual asylum and appeal hearings.
EU partners were expected to pledge additional manpower and resources to
help Athens cope with the new challenge and with a backlog of 43,000 migrants
bottled up on its territory since its northern neighbor Macedonia closed its
border.
Ankara's central objective - visa-free travel for Turks to Europe by June -
will depend on Turkey meeting a raft of long-standing EU criteria. With French
voters alarmed at the idea of nearly 79 million Muslim Turks free to travel,
French President Francois Hollande stressed the need to fulfill all 72
conditions.
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