There is an understanding between Ankara and Brussels that the nations of the European Union (EU) will agree to “quotas” of a quarter-million migrants a year directly from Turkey, claims a German Sunday paper.
The report states there is a clearly understood but little-discussed agreement between the governments of Turkey and the EU over migrant quotas, with so-called ‘refugees’ being flown directly from Asia Minor to their new European homes.
While media coverage of the agreement has mainly focussed on the deportation of migrants from Greece back to Turkey, and the payment of potentially several billion euros to Ankara in compensation, there has been less coverage of migrants being sent from Turkey to Europe. At a rate of 250,000 a year, it seems likely under the agreement Europe may receive more ‘official’ migrants than it is able to send back.
Despite the lack of public understanding of this side of the deal, the mass movement of migrants to Europe is now getting underway and is expected to be in full-swing shortly. Speaking to Welt am Sonntag, Gerald Knaus of the European Stability Initiative said of the ‘understanding’ over migrant numbers: “The Turkish side expects the Europeans to begin taking about 250,000 Syrians a year in a few weeks so”.
The report says this figure has not been set on paper, but rather has been agreed verbally between the two parties. Mr. Knaus said the EU expected the free flow of migrants across the Mediterranean from Turkey to Greece would be expected to end before the deal kicked in, but presently there seems little evidence of that happening as thousands continue to turn up on the Greek islands.
Once the migrants have been flown into Europe from Turkey, the continental power bloc plans to redistribute them ‘fairly’ internally. This, Mr. Knaus likens to “running before you can walk” and “incomprehensible”, given the EU’s inability to get agreement on migrant policy from its diverse member states.
While the so-called “coalition of the willing” — nations like Germany and Sweden — are happy to accept yet more migrants, a growing group of Eastern European states are proving reticent. Breitbart London reported this week on Hungarian leader Viktor Orbán, who said he was declaring “war against Brussels” and European migrant politics.
Announcing he was going to be travelling around European capitals to find other states to help him resist the migrant invasion, one has already rallied to the flag — conservative Poland. Hungary Today reports Poland is to support Hungary’s lawsuit at the European Court of Justice against the migrant relocation scheme.
Justice minister Zbigniew Ziobro said: “We are of the opinion that Hungary’s complaint is well-founded”.
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