EU seeks another EUR3bn Turkey migrant deal
http://bit.ly/2DoGvJf | The EU should pay EUR3 billion more to keep refugees in Turkey despite concerns about the Turkish regime, the European Commission has said. It should also put "pressure" on African and Asian states to take back their unwanted nationals from the EU, it added.
The EUR3 billion is to be funded with EUR1 billion from the EU budget and the rest from member states, as in the previous EUR3 billion tranche, which ended in 2017.
It is to be spent on housing, educating, and giving medical care to the three million refugees now in Turkey, Dimitris Avramopoulos, the EU migration commissioner, said announcing the proposal in Brussels on Wednesday (14 March).
He urged member states to back it despite Turkey's rift with the EU over president Recep Tayyip Erdogan's assault on human rights in his post-coup crackdown.
The previous package had led to a "clear and consistent" drop of irregular migrants from Turkey to Greece, he said.
"It is in the interest of Turkey and of the European Union to have this agreement and this agreement should continue to exist as before," he said, referring to a 2016 EU-Turkey deal on migrants.
"Recently, the political climate has become a bit more strained, we recognise that," Avramopoulos added......