Some 80,000 refugees were rescued off Turkish coasts this year alone, while more than 3,000 died on their way to Greek islands via Turkey, the Turkish coast guard said. Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu however said late last month that Turkey can not guarantee that the refugee influx will abate.
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Taoiseach Enda Kenny will join leaders of the other 27 European Union member states for the final leaders’ summit of the year, with a discussion on Britain’s renegotiation scheduled to take place this evening.
The EU is at loggerheads over two distinct issues – relocation of migrants who have already arrived in Europe through Greece and Italy, and resettlement of a limited number directly from Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon.
Tsipras underlined the necessity of Turkey΄s implementing all agreements reached at the Summit, noting that the relationship between Greece and Turkey was pivotal in managing and reducing refugee flows.
It had set off from the Aegean resort of Bodrum in Turkey’s southwest.
“This decrease may…be attributed to other factors”, said the report seen by AFP. “It must realize the size of the problem and understand it. These people should stop being “somebody else” and must become the refugees that we must stand by them and support them”, Sarandon told the Athens-Macedonian News Agency on Friday in exclusive comments. The Commission said the body is able to handle 80,000 cases globally a year – less than 10 percent of the number of migrants that have flooded into Europe in 2015.
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Macedonia’s Foreign Minister Nikola Poposki said Thursday his government “does not want borders with barriers, which is not a long-term solution” but that the country of two million inhabitants faced an “even greater challenge” than Greece in trying to handle the huge numbers of people passing through its territory.
