European leaders seek refugee deal
with Turkey
By MATTHEW KARNITSCHNIG 9/20/15, 3:40 PM CET Updated
9/21/15, 7:14 AM CET http://www.politico.eu/article/refugee-crisis-germany-italy-france-migrants-european-leaders-seek-refugee-deal-with-turkey/
BERLIN — Europe’s leaders, unnerved
by the caustic tone between capitals over quotas, are redoubling efforts to
address the refugee issue at what many see as the source: Turkey.
Germany, Italy and France have led a behind-the-scenes push
in recent days to strike a deal with Ankara to improve conditions for the 2.2
million Syrian refugees living in Turkey. The issue is expected to top the
agenda when EU leaders meet at an emergency summit Wednesday on the refugee
crisis.
The Turkey initiative comes as Europe has struggled to find
an agreement on allocating refugees streaming into the EU. Interior ministers
now appear likely to reach a deal for distributing about 120,000 this week, but
with more than one million refugees expected in Germany alone this year, the
move will do little to resolve the broader crisis.
Europe must “work with Turkey” to ensure the refugees “can
stay there, find a job, and wait for the situation in Syria to improve,” French
President François Hollande said after meeting with Italian Prime Minister
Matteo Renzi on Thursday.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier made an
unscheduled trip to Ankara on Friday to discuss the crisis with Turkish leader
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and other senior officials. His goal, he said, was to prevent
further “chaos” on Europe’s borders.
Europeans underestimate the key role Syria’s neighbors have
played in dealing with the crisis and that’s “especially true for Turkey,”
Steinmeier said, praising Ankara’s “amazing contribution.”
Most of the Syrians coming to Europe do so via Turkey, where
many live in what the United Nations has described as “abject poverty.” The
deteriorating conditions in Turkey as well as in neighboring Jordan and Lebanon
have prompted many to set out for Europe, often risking their lives to do so.
Europe is offering Turkey a significant increase in
financial aid as it seeks to encourage it to take on more of the burden. The
European Commission said last week that it would more than double its aid to
Turkey to up to €1 billion.
The money will “help Turkey to deal with this challenge and
give people a perspective to stay in the region in order to return back into
their home region, home towns, as soon as this is possible,” said Johannes
Hahn, European commissioner for neighborhood policy, during a visit Saturday to
a refugee camp in Macedonia, AFP reported.
But officials say Turkey is looking for an even larger
commitment with the crisis in Syria worsening and the prospect of refugees
returning home anytime soon remote. European offiicals have signaled to Ankara
that they would be willing to fund the building of schools and other
infrastructure to ease the burden.
Over the past five years, Turkey has spent about $8 billion
to help the refugees. Even so, the huge influx has strained its resources as
well as those of the international organizations active in the region. The UN’s
World Food Program recently cut funding for 1.3 million refugees in the region
by half due to financial constraints.
Authors:
Matthew Karnitschnig
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