EU leaders agree on joint position in Turkey migration deal

EU leaders have agreed on a joint position to put to Turkey in an attempt to reach a deal over the migration crisis according to international reports.

According to reports, the common position would be put to Turkish PM Ahmet Davutoglu on Friday morning.

The proposed deal will effectively see a pushback of all refugees travelling to Greece from Turkey, and the EU offering Turkey financial aid and visa-free access to Schengen countries.

According to reports, the plan also suggests that for every Syrian refugee sent back, another Syrian would be resettled in the EU directly from refugee camps in Turkey.

During the summit meeting, German Chancellor Angela Merkel emphasised that Turkey had to meet international standards of protection for all refugees, and that the legal resettlement of Syrian refugees could start a few days after the first returns from Greece. However, Merkel said that the EU needed to be ready to start returning migrants from Greece to Turkey rapidly to avoid a "pull factor" creating a surge of migrants before the new system takes effect.

Other leaders have warned that the plan to return people to Turkey is “on the edge of international law,” with organisations even pointing out that it might be a breach of human rights, but the leaders have discussed providing assurances that each person claiming asylum will be given a full hearing to address concerns over the plan's legality.

Davutoglu has said he will not accept Turkey becoming an “open prison” for refugees.

Malta’s prime minister Joseph Muscat has said that the deal being offered to Turkey is a “bad deal,” but that the alternative is “nothing and a humanitarian crisis which nobody seems to know how to handle.”

Commenting on the somewhat controversial nature of the decision, “a decision which resembles Malta’s pushback policy, which had caused widespread scorn from the European commission,” Muscat said that “although inconvenient, this seems to be the only option open to the EU at this point.”

Muscat said he would push for aid for other countries should they become a migrant route as a result of the Turkish route being blocked. “I will insist tonight that the concluding document must have a clear mention stating that the EU would be prepared to address any other crisis caused by new migration route opening as a result of the EU-Turkey deal.”

He said Malta, along with other countries was insisting on obtaining the same aid from the EU should other routes, such as the sea-crossing between Libya and Italy, reopen as a result of the blockage.

Meanwhile, British prime minister David Cameron has also pressed EU leaders for more international patrol ships to start turning back boats of refugees as soon as they set off on perilous journeys across the Mediterranean from Libya. He has said that the EU rescue mission in the central Mediterranean needs to be expanded so that the international operation’s boats work with the Libyan coastguards to send boats back to Libya.

Since January 2015, a million refugees have entered the EU by boat from Turkey to Greece, with more than 132,000 arriving this year alone. Thousands are now stuck in Greece as their route north has been blocked.

Under initial proposals, the EU had suggested doubling financial aid to Turkey promised last year, and making a fresh push on talks over Turkey's eventual membership of the EU, as well as offering visa-free travel to Europe's Schengen states. However, those proposals have since been watered down, lowering expectation on greater financial help and talks on EU membership and linking visa-free travel to 72 conditions to which Turkey must agree.