EU leaders meet in Turkey in bid to address refugee crisis

The leaders line up in Brussels. Picture: Getty Images

Turkey has asked for an additional €3 billion (£2.3bn) from the EU to help it deal with refugees – double the amount originally offered – in return for it taking back those who do not qualify for asylum in the EU who have travelled via its territory.

A daytime meeting overran into emergency talks as Mr Davutoglu said he was proposing a “new package” designed to “strengthen Turkish-EU ties not only on the illegal migrants issue but also in all challenging issues as well as Turkey’s EU accession process”.

Turkey is also negotiating to fast track its application to join the EU and speed up plans to allow Turks visa-free travel in Europe.

Meanwhile, conflict also arose over reported proposals to formally close the western Balkans transit route for refugees travelling to reach western Europe as Germany denied that a closure was planned. Around 13,000 refugees are now waiting at Greece’s border with Macedonia after the country stemmed the flow of people travelling along the route to a trickle.

European Parliament president Martin Schulz said that a “further request of the Turkish side for additional money – €3bn – are in the debate, are in the discussion” and warned that the refugee crisis was at risk of escalating into a humanitarian crisis.

He added: “Relations with Turkey were, are and remain very difficult, but for the benefit of refugees we need to co-operate. This is why we should do all we can.”

Turkey is currently hosting more than 2.5 million registered Syrian refugees, while most of the more than one million migrants and refugees who reached the EU in 2015 came via Turkey.

Meanwhile, in an address to women trade unionists in Ankara, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused the EU of failing to deliver the fund he said had already been promised to Turkey and added that he hopes Mr Davutoglu can return from the Brussels summit with the money.

“It’s been four months,” Mr Erdogan said. “My prime minister is currently in Brussels. I hope he will return with the money.”

Mr Erdogan also criticised European states for their unwillingness to take in refugees as well as their demands on Turkey to halt the flow.

He said: “We are not sending them, they are going [to Greece] by sea and many are dying. We have rescued close to 100,000 from the sea. Others are puncturing their boats and causing their deaths.”

EU plans to resettle refugees in European countries have faced opposition from many member states, resulting in little action from countries which were supposedly open to take in a quota of people claiming asylum from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq.

Hungary’s prime minister yesterday warned that Europe should shut its borders to migrants and not let anyone in without registration and permission. Arriving in Brussels, Viktor Orban said that any plan to resettle people from Turkey or Greece would only add “fuel to the fire”.