Migrant pact back on table in EU, Turkey talks

The EU and Turkey are preparing for a fresh round of diplomacy in an attempt to keep their migration pact working, despite the downward spiral in relations since Ankara’s crackdown on tens of thousands of people it says are supporters of the exiled cleric it blames for a failed military coup.

The two sides will reach a moment of truth in September, when the European commission is due to report on whether Turkey has done enough to gain visa-free travel to Europe’s borderless Schengen zone, a linchpin of the migration deal.

A delegation of EU officials is expected in Ankara in the coming weeks to assess Turkey’s progress, while a visit by the EU commissioner responsible for migration, Dimitris Avramopoulos, is also being discussed.

The diplomatic move comes amid an increase in migrants crossing the eastern Mediterranean to Europe. In August, 109 people a day on average have been arriving on Greek shores, compared to 62 in July, although still far below January’s tally of 2,000. The UN refugee agency warned that Europe could see a repeat of last year’s chaotic mass arrivals, unless EU governments did more to help asylum seekers in the Middle East as well as resettling more refugees.

“The feeling in Europe is that the problem has been solved,” UNHCR spokesman William Spindler said. “People have forgotten about the problem, because they do not see the immediacy of it.”

Around 50,000 people are stranded in Greece, many living in dire conditions in reception centres, not knowing when they will move on. Save the Children reported this week that Greek refugee camps were bursting at the seams: people are living in dirty and unsafe conditions, as camps lack sufficient drinking water, showers and toilets.

Under the pact with Ankara, Europe promised an initial €3bn aid for Syrian refugees in Turkey, in exchange for being able to send back irregular migrants who had arrived in Greece. The deal was sweetened by the promise of visa-free travel for Turks throughout continental Europe.

But even before the botched coup in Turkey, the deal had been hanging by a thread with Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, insisting he would not re-write Turkey’s counter-terrorism laws – a key condition of the visa deal.

Officials from both sides working on the visa deal insist it is viable, despite deteriorating EU-Turkey relations in the aftermath of the failed coup. Selim Yenel, Turkey’s most senior diplomat in Brussels, believes a visa agreement in October is still possible, although he said “emotions are still very high”.

The ambassador, who returns to Ankara in September, said he couldn’t imagine Turkey adopting the death penalty, which the EU opposes, arguing there was no majority in the Turkish parliament for capital punishment.

Erdoğan told Le Monde that Turkey’s parliament would decide if the death penalty is reinstated, in a wide-ranging interview, where he accused Europe of “not being sincere with Turkey”. The EU has warned Turkey that re-instating the death penalty would end its membership hopes.