EU to push Turkey to take back more migrants on a ‘large scale’

A boy caries bread at the makeshift camp near the Greek village of Idomeni, on the Macedonian border, on Sunday. — AFP

European leaders will push Turkey at a summit on Monday to agree to “large-scale” deportations of economic migrants from Greece which is bracing for a fresh surge of migrant and refugee arrivals by the end of March.

The European Union’s 28 leaders are hoping for new commitments from Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu at their talks in Brussels in order to curb the chaos on the west Balkans route that begins in overstretched Greece.

The EU will also push Ankara to drastically reduce the huge flow of migrants into Europe, as Turkey is the launch pad for most of the more than one million refugees and migrants who have come to the continent since early 2015.

On Saturday, European migration commissioner Dimitris Avramapoulos said Greece — already struggling with a buildup of 30,000 migrants — was expected to receive “another 100,000” by the end of March.

Greece is likely to receive another 100,000 migrants by the end of the month, the migration commissioner has warned.

EU leaders will also try to increase aid for Greece which has seen non-EU Macedonia and EU countries on the Balkans route tighten their borders, stranding asylum seekers desperate to head northward to wealthy Germany and Scandinavia.

Macedonia allowed just 240 people to cross the border with Greece between Saturday and early Sunday morning, Greek frontier police said.

Meanwhile, there are already over 5,000 refugees and migrants waiting to cross to the Greek mainland from the Aegean islands facing Turkey, Greece’s state agency ANA reported Sunday.

Donald Tusk, the European Council president and summit host, said in his invitation letter that success depended largely on securing Turkey’s agreement at the summit for the “large-scale” readmission from Greece of economic migrants who do not qualify as refugees.

Syrians, who top the influx of people into Europe, are considered genuine refugees requiring admission under international law.

Meanwhile, Austria does not want to take part in any quota system for distributing refugees among European countries because it has done enough on its own, its defence minister was quoted as saying.

The comments by Social Democrat Hans Peter Doskozil to the Oesterreich newspaper threaten to make even more complicated the emergency EU summit.

Separately, at least 18 migrants died on Sunday after their boat capsized in the Aegean Sea while trying to cross from Turkey to Greece, a Turkish official said.

The Turkish Coast Guard rescued 15 migrants from the boat off the coastal town of Didim in southwest Turkey, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The nationality of the migrants was not immediately known.

The Coast Guard, backed up by three boats and one helicopter, was hunting for the missing, the state-run Anatolia news agency reported. Turkey is the main launch pad for most of the more than one million refugees and migrants who have crossed into Europe.