Working with Turkish and United Nations officials, the European Union said it will launch next month the programme to distribute EU-funded debit cards that will help up to one million of Turkey’s almost three million refugees, majority Syrian.
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Earlier on Friday, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini (pictured above, left) and Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn met with Cavusoglu and EU Affairs Minister Omer Celik (pictured above, second from right) in Ankara.
Under the controversial EU-Turkey deal struck in March, migrants arriving in Greece were expected to be sent back to Turkey if they did not apply for asylum, or if their asylum requests were refused.
Turkey has threatened to scrap a key deal with the European Union on stemming the flow of migrants heading from Turkey to Europe if visa restrictions for citizens traveling to Europe are not eased by October.
Plans to loosen visa rules came to a standstill after Turkey balked at softening its anti-terrorism laws, part of a list of criteria the country is required to fulfill by the EU.
In the meantime, Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras will be hosting a southern European countries Summit in Athens to address migration and security as well as economy issues in an attempt to shape a better EU.
“So they must be helped, reinforced, so that we can allow for asylum seekers, but so there can also be an efficient control of immigration”.
There are over 3.1 million Syrian, Iraqi and other nationality refugees in Turkey, making the country the most-welcoming host taking in refugees fleeing conflicts.
Fearing a surge in anti-migrant sentiment across the EU, Greece is pressing member states to abide by commitments made for a relocation program – that has covered less that 10 percent of the 33,000 placements promised to migrants in Greece so far. He said the European Union has already dispensed 180 million euros in cash to NGOs and other institutions.
Hahn said the timing depended on Turkey, but that a solution was possible. “That would be outrageous”.
The Emergency Social Safety Net (ESSN), financed with €348 million by the European Union and its member states under the Facility for Refugees in Turkey, is the first social assistance scheme of its kind, marrying global humanitarian know-how and government services to reach out to one million refugees across Turkey.
The unresolved situation in Cyprus – which is divided between the Greek-ruled, internationally-recognised south and the Turkish north – remains a huge obstacle to Turkey s membership bid, with the Republic of Cyprus blocking the opening of several new chapters.
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Information for this article was contributed by Suzan Fraser, Nicholas Paphitis, Sylvie Corbet, Menelaos Hadjicostis and Derek Gatopoulos of The Associated Press.
