European Union leaders and Turkey are due to pick up where they left off last week at a further summit in Brussels
ADVERTISEMENTEuropean Union leaders and Turkey are due to pick up where they left off last week at a further summit in Brussels as they attempt to finalise a pact on curbing migration to Europe.
Under their tentative agreement reached last week, Ankara would take back all migrants and refugees who enter the EU from its shores or are detained in its territorial waters.
This in return for more money, faster visa-free travel for Turks and a speeding up of its slow-moving EU membership negotiations.
For its part, the EU would admit one legal Syrian refugee directly from Turkey for each one trying to reach Europe by boat and taken back by Turkey from the Greek islands.
This is a step meant to wreck the business model of people smugglers.
It’s hoped some of these measures will stop people risking their lives via the Aegean sea route.
Euronews reporter Bora Bayraktar visited the Turkish town of Basmane in Izmir.
This is where migrants who have made it as far as Turkey meet up with people traffickers and await a departure time.
The hotels in the town are cheap and the shops sell such things as life jackets and other necessities for taking the risky journey to Greece.
Not only Syrians but Afghans, Iraqis, Libyans want to leave.
Fatih a local in the town has noticed a fall in the numbers going.
“Over the last few weeks, many people, many Syrians who said goodbye to us for good, about 90 per cent, could not go,” she said.
“They came back and said we couldn’t. The reason they say ‘Germany does not accept us anymore’ or ‘the weather is bad’. But there are many people who are planning to go in summer. “
With the weather improving time is of the essence for the EU and Turkey to begin implementing the joint action plan.
Euronews reporter Bora Bayraktar says the full impact of any measures carried out under the agreement between the EU and Turkey won’t be clear until the summer comes.