EU sees little drop in migrants since Turkey deal: Document

BRUSSELS – Reuters

AFP photo

The European Union has seen little evidence that Turkey has managed to reduce departures of migrants for Greek islands in the two weeks since it signed an agreement to do so, an EU document showed on Dec. 17.

The report by the Luxembourg government, in its current capacity as president of EU ministerial councils, said about 4,000 people a day arrived from Turkey since the accord on Nov. 29, a “slight reduction” from the 5,000-6,000 seen earlier in that month. But this was not necessarily due to Turkish action.

“This decrease may, however, also be attributed to other factors,” said the report, seen by Reuters and sent to EU leaders on Dec. 16 ahead of a summit on Dec. 17 in Brussels at which they will discuss efforts to stem the migration crisis.

EU border agency Frontex has said arrivals in Greece in all of November were 108,000, roughly half the figure for October, largely because weather conditions had deteriorated. 

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu will meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel and some other leaders before the main summit on Dec. 17 to discuss a possible scheme to bring Syrian refugees directly from Turkey to Europe. 

But many EU leaders have stressed that any such move depends on seeing evidence that Turkey is working to prevent people smugglers putting people to sea to reach Europe. That is also true of disbursement of the 3 billion euros ($3.3 billion) they pledged to Ankara on Nov. 29 and other concessions, such as easing visa rules for Turks coming to the EU.