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Sunday, February 28, 2016

Turkey raises anti-smuggling steps but faces uphill struggle

[A view of the Aegean Sea as seen aboard a rescue vessel from MOAS, Migrant Offshore Aid Station, a Malta-based organization aimed to rescue migrants on sea, as it patrols between the eastern Greek Island of Agathonisi and Turkish shores, Sunday, Feb. 28, 2016. Greece is mired in a full-blown diplomatic dispute with some EU countries over their border slowdowns and closures. Those border moves have left Greece and the migrants caught between an increasingly fractious Europe, where several countries are reluctant to accept more asylum-seekers, and Turkey, which has appeared unwilling or unable to staunch the torrent of people leaving in barely seaworthy smuggling boats for Greek islands. About 20,000 migrants are stuck in Greece, authorities say. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)]ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey all but turned a blind eye last year as more than 850,000 people, most of them Syrians, slipped into Greece from Turkey on smugglers' boats. Now it's promised the European Union that will change.


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT uk.news.yahoo.com