Merkel calls Turkey ‘right’ in wanting to share refugee task with Europe

BERLIN

German Chancellor Angela Merkel. REUTERS Photo

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said Turkey “rightfully” wanted to share the burden of more than 2.5 million migrants with the European Union. 

“We received under one million refugees last year, it was around 230,000 a year ago [in 2014]. Turkey, on the other hand, took in already around 2.5 million refugees and now says, rightfully, that it wants to share the task with Europe,” Merkel told German newspaper Bild am Sonntag in an interview published on March 6. 

Merkel said with the money promised to Turkey by the EU, Turkey could build schools for Syrian refugee children and create work opportunities for refugees in Turkey.

Meanwhile, the German government has doubts about Turkey’s prospects of becoming a full member of the European Union, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble said in an interview with BBC released on March 6.

In response to a question about Turkey’s possible future accession to the bloc, he said the German government had major doubts about whether it should become a full EU member. 

“It will be a long time before we reach the end of negotiations with Turkey,” Schäuble said, according to a translation of the interview broadcast on March 6. 

“This is a question for the coming years, it is not a worry at the present time.”