European leaders expected to try to speed up work on joint action plan aimed at getting to grips with crisis The last time the head of the European commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, visited Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan threatened to put millions of refugees living in the country on planes and buses bound for Europe. But at an EU-Turkey summit on Monday, European leaders will call on Turkey to do more to stop people getting on rickety boats to make the life-threatening journey across the Aegean Sea. Despite the previous bad-tempered encounter between Juncker and Erdoğan, hopes are rising that Ankara will take back migrants who do not qualify for asylum in Europe such as Afghans, Moroccans and Pakistanis. Last week, more than 300 people were sent back to Turkey from Greece, a development EU diplomats hailed as the start of a bigger returns programme. Related: ‘They only want to keep refugees out of Europe’ Related: EU acting like ‘human trafficker’ of refugees, says Austrian minister Related: EU refugee crisis: asylum seeker numbers double to 1.2m in 2015 Continue reading...
 |
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.theguardian.com |