European and Turkish
leaders have agreed to stem the flow of migrants and refugees who are reaching
the EU through the Balkans.
Following talks in
Brussels, European Council President Donald Tusk said "the days of
irregular migration to Europe are over".
He added: "The
flow of migrants passing from Turkey to Greece remains much too high and needs
to be brought down significantly."
Turkey has confirmed
it will begin to take back migrants who are apprehended in the Aegean Sea,
where hundreds have drowned during desperate attempts to reach Greek islands.
It will also
implement an agreement "to accept the rapid return of all migrants not in
need of international protection crossing from Turkey into Greece".
A statement released
after the meeting added: "The Heads of State or Government agreed that
bold moves were needed to close down people smuggling routes, to break the
business model of the smugglers, to protect our external borders and to end the
migration crisis in Europe.
"We need to
break the link between getting in a boat and getting settlement in
Europe."
Mr Tusk said the EU
has agreed to look at resettling some of the millions of refugees currently in
Turkey.
A "one in, one
out" system was proposed at the summit - where one Syrian refugee would be
resettled in the EU for every person who was sent back to Turkey from Greece.
The European
Commission's President, Jean-Claude Juncker, added that refugees who attempt to
reach Europe illegally will be put on the bottom of the list for resettlement.
Sky's Europe
Correspondent, Mark Stone, said clamping down on the well-trodden migration
route will be "very difficult to try and put into place", as some EU
courts may rule the measures proposed are not legal.
Another proposal
will see Turkey and the EU work together to improve humanitarian conditions
inside Syria, identifying "safe zones" where refugees can live.
Ahmet Davutoglu
called for €3bn (£2.3bn) of EU funds already pledged for refugees to begin
being used in the coming days - and warned Ankara will need a further €3bn to
cope with Syrian refugees who have crossed the border into Turkey.
Greece's Prime
Minister, Alexis Tsipras, said he believes many leaders were surprised at
Turkey's "attractive proposals" for managing the migration crisis.
A two-day summit
will begin on 17 March to finalise each commitment, but any agreement made with
Turkey will come with conditions.
The country wants
talks which advance its long-standing goal of joining the European Union, as
well as visa-free travel for Turkish citizens travelling into the Schengen
zone.
Citation:
"Days Of
Illegal Migration To EU Over, Says Tusk."
Sky News. N.p., 8 Mar. 2016. Web.
08 Mar. 2016.
Response:
This is article
proposes a possible solution for the current migration crisis. This article is
biased in the way it fails to mention what will happen with the refugees while
they try to implement this plan. It will
take quite some time to set up safe zones in Syria and help conditions. If the
refugees are being denied entrance into other countries where are they supposed
to go? The article mentions that Turkey will take some refugees but that will
also take time. Turkey has "conditions" that need to be met first.
This will be a long process. I understand that the countries cannot handle huge
immigrations of people at one time, but I don’t think this plan will be very
effective for the short term. It will help the long term, but as of right now
those people are stranded. They left Syria for a reason and need to be able to
find a home. I think this plan is a good concept but needs to have a short term
plan as well as a long term plan.
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