A DEAL born of political desperation and fraught with practical, legal and ethical difficulties. That would seem to be a fair description of the agreement hammered out between Germany and Turkey to tackle the refugee crisis, which was endorsed by European Union leaders and Turkey’s beaming prime minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, on March 7th. Last year 1.2m people entered Europe from Syria, Afghanistan and elsewhere. Without concerted action at least as many are expected to try to follow them this year. The idea behind the agreement is to smash the business model of the people-smugglers. Any migrants landing on a Greek island after making the short but perilous voyage across the Aegean Sea will automatically be sent back to Turkey, where they will be put at the back of the queue of those seeking asylum. To relieve the pressure on Turkey, which has taken in 2.7m refugees since Syria’s civil war began five years ago, for each Syrian returned another whose asylum application has been properly processed will be allowed to enter the EU under an official resettlement scheme. If all goes to plan, migrants may be more reluctant to hand over their life savings to...
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