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Erdogan in Brussels for migrant talks
This post was originally published on this siteTurkey’s Erdogan to hold migration talks with EU
-
5 October 2015
- From the section Europe
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is to hold key talks with EU officials in Brussels on how to deal with the migrant crisis.
Turkey is home to at least two million Syrian refugees and has been one of the main departure points for those trying to reach Europe.
It is thought EU officials will offer financial aid for more camps in Turkey.
Mr Erdogan is expected to press for more EU involvement to end the war in Syria.
EU leaders hope Syrian asylum seekers will stay in Turkey if camps there are better and if they have access to healthcare and jobs, correspondents report.
The EU is also expected to demand the right to help patrol Turkey’s coastline to crack down on people smugglers.
Image copyright
EPA
It is thought EU countries will offer money to set up more camps in Turkey like this one in the country’s south-east
Analysis: Katya Adler, BBC Europe editor, Brussels
The Turkish president cultivates an authoritarian, strongman image and he needs to keep that up ahead of tight elections in Turkey. He won’t come to Brussels to be pushed around.
The EU is telling him how to better patrol his borders and what to do with refugees in his country and so he intends to slap a list of his own daunting demands on the table.
He wants EU support to establish a “safe zone” in northern Syria, just over the Turkish border and suggests building huge refugee camps there. Europe’s leaders, notably Angela Merkel have already ruled out that possibility.
He also insists the EU should do more to help end the conflict in Syria and that Europe should take in more refugees in the meantime.
The talks will be tricky – relations are already tense after a couple of decades of failed negotiations on Turkey’s possible accession to the EU.
Refugee crisis stokes tensions in Turkey
As well as financial aid, the EU is expected to offer the resettlement of more Syrians in Europe and to speed up the process of lifting visa restrictions for Turkish travellers.
On Sunday Mr Erdogan criticised European countries’ migration policies at a rally in the French city of Strasbourg, accusing them of “confining refugees to the depths of the Mediterranean”.
He said his country had taught Europe and the world a “lesson on humanity” by hosting two million refugees from Syria, AP reports.
The post Erdogan in Brussels for migrant talks appeared first on Middle East Post.
Source: http://middleastpost.com/erdogan-in-brussels-for-migrant-talks/
