Turkey ready to take in migrants
ISTANBUL // Turkey has prepared to take in up to 500 migrants from Greece today under a plan agreed with the European Union to reduce the flow of illegal migration, the interior minister said.
Turkish media reports have said the first wave of migrants sent back by Greece were set to arrive in the resort town of Dikili which lies just opposite the Greek island of Lesbos, a major hub for migration to the EU. “We have prepared for 500 people to come on Monday. We are making our plans and putting in place our capacities,” interior minister Efkan Ala said yesterday.
“We have been in touch with the Greek authorities and said we could take 500 people and they have given us 400 names. Tomorrow it’s possible that this figure could change.” Under the scheme – which has been condemned by rights groups – Turkey will send one Syrian refugee to Europe in exchange for every one it takes back from Greece.
The plan aims to halt the flow of illegal migration and break up the lucrative people-smuggling racket after about one million migrants crossed the Aegean last year from Turkey in search of a better life in the EU.
Mr Ala argued that the numbers crossing had fallen in the past 10 days to 300 people a day.
He said that since the start of this year, Turkey had detained about 1,715 people smugglers and 351 were jailed.
Meanwhile, about 65,000 migrants had been caught and prevented from leaving Turkey since January 1, four-and-a-half times more than in the same period last year, Mr Ala said..
He indicated that citizens of countries such as Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan sent back by Greece would be returned by Turkey to their home countries.
Syrians would be sent on to refugee camps or other areas within Turkey, he added.
Turkey denied claims by Amnesty International that it had been forcibly repatriating Syrians and it was not a safe country for the return of the refugees. Mr Ala said Turkey was now home to 2.75 million Syrian refugees and had spent US$10 billion (Dh36.7bn) looking after them. About 250,0000 of these Syrians live in refugee camps and the rest in towns and cities.