Migration deal with EU working successfully: Turkish FM

KOCAELİ – Anadolu Agency

2016 migration deal with European Union has been working “successfully,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said on Oct. 26.

“The migration agreement that we signed with the EU on March 18, 2016 has been successfully implemented so far,” Çavuşoğlu said at Kartepe Summit in the northwestern province of Kocaeli.

Çavuşoğlu also called on the EU to be “more resolute” to fulfill the needs of Syrians in Turkey.

In March 2016, EU and Turkey reached an agreement to stop irregular migration through the Aegean Sea, and improve the conditions of more than 3 million Syrian refugees in Turkey.

The EU pledged €6 billion ($7.44 billion) in funding for the refugees, and promised to mobilize the second €3 billion ($3.72 billion) tranche by the end of 2018.

Turkey hosts 3.5 million Syrian refugees, more than any other country in the world. The country has spent more than $32 billion from its own national resources for helping and sheltering refugees since the beginning of the Syrian civil war.