Despite European Union elites, including some Bilderberg attendees, negotiating a deal with Turkey to temporarily suspend Middle East immigrants pouring into the EU until after the June 23 Brexit vote, UK voters now favor leaving the EU by 10 percent.
The influx of migrants from the war-torn Middle East and North Africa has put a huge strain on Europe. To address the tsunami of destitute and potentially dangerous immigrants, the European Union cut a deal with Turkey to drastically slow the tide.
According to Stratfor Global Intelligence, the tentative deal struck between Turkey and the EU on March 18 gave Ankara an extra $3 billion in aid, accelerated its EU membership talks and eased visa restrictions for Turkish citizens after June.
Ankara in return, agreed to keep migrants from passing through their borders on the way to the Continent and to take back any migrants who made it to Europe after the deal’s implementation on March 20.
To discourage further illegal immigration from Syria, the parties agreed to “resettle” one legal Syrian refugee from Turkey for each Syrian non-refugee deported from Greece.
Since talks with Turkey began, the flow of Middle East migrants to Europe has shriveled from about 70,000 reaching the Greek shores in January to just about 1,000 in May.
The success in limiting illegal immigration from Turkey is even more compelling, given that spring usually marks a huge uptick in human smuggling as warmer weather reduces dangerous Aegean storms.
The Turkish authorities have cracked down on criminal gangs operating around ports and the nation’s Coast Guard has intercepted a large number of crowed boats heading for Greece. The risk of paying smuggling fees, and then being sent back has at least temporarily dissuaded immigrants from trying to make the crossing.
But British voters seem to have responded to the success of the deal with Turkey as cynical proof that the EU and their Bilderberg corporate and political allies could have curtailed illegal immigration in the past, but chose to encourage the mass movement as a ready source of cheap labor.
Notwithstanding the furious efforts of British Prime Minister David Cameron to paint a Brexit vote as a disaster, only 45 percent of British voters want to “remain” in the EU and just 25 percent of British voters believe that leaving will result in lower living standards.
In an effort to appear to be more transparent, the Bilderberg Steering Committee led by Henry Kissinger released the full roster of this year’s attendees that include politicians, bankers, academic intellectuals and chiefs of multi-national corporations.
Despite Richard Engel, chief Foreign Correspondent, NBC News, John Micklethwait, Editor-in-Chief, Bloomberg LP and Zanny Minton Beddoes, Editor-in-Chief of The Economist attending, no journalists are allowed to report on proceedings.