Turkey and EU agree Outline of ’Deal’ over Syria Refugee Crisis

Local Editor

European leaders said they reached the outlines for a possible deal with Ankara to return thousands of refugees to Turkey and are hopeful a full agreement can be reached at a summit next week.

Turkey's Prime Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, outlined proposals early on Tuesday morning to resettle one Syrian refugee in Europe for every Syrian returned to Turkey from the Greek islands.

After 12 hours of talks in Brussels, the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, described the one in, one out proposal as "a breakthrough" that would deter refugees from making the perilous sea crossing to Greece, but said Europe needed more time to agree final details.

Accordingly, EU leaders will aim to seal the deal with Turkey at another summit on 17-18 March.

The Turkish proposals, which had been agreed with Merkel and the Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, on the eve of the summit, came as a surprise to other EU leaders. One said EU officials were left scrambling to find out if it was "legally and logistically possible", while another diplomat said it was "naive" to think that such a complex plan could be agreed so quickly.

For their part, human rights groups considered returning asylum seekers from Greece to Turkey would be illegal, but the EU is desperate to reduce the flow of migrants and refugees coming to Europe.

Turkey has given shelter to almost 3 million refugees, while almost 363,000 Syrians claimed asylum in Europe last year.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team