Turkey receives no funds from EU to upkeep Syrian refugees
By Fatma Babayeva
The migration problem of Syrian refugees remains a challenge for the world amid the ongoing Syrian crises since 2011.
The large influx of the Syrian refugees to Europe through Turkey and North Africa caused political crises among European states.
Earlier, in March 2016, the European Union concluded a refugee deal with Turkey in order to prevent the irregular migration of refugees to Europe through Turkey. In exchange, the EU was going to back visa-free travel for Turkish citizens in Schengen area.
However, the full scale implementation of this deal remains under question. Yet, Turkey has not received €3 billion promised by the EU to upkeep the Syrian refugees, Turkish Presidential Administration told Trend news agency on May 11.
The Administration noted that instead of allocating the promised funds, the EU demands from Ankara to implement new social projects for Syrian refugees in Turkey.
The country has already spent around $10 billion to take care of the Syrian refugees, said the presidential administration.
Previously, Turkish Minister for EU Affairs Volkan Bozkir said that Ankara will get €3 billion by late February that the EU allocated to upkeep the Syrian refugees in Turkey.
Currently, there are over 2 million Syrian refugees in Turkey. The Syrian refugee camps in the country accommodate about 300,000 people. The rest of them are spread throughout the provinces and cities of Turkey. At the moment, there are about 40,000 Syrian refugees only in Istanbul.
What’s more, integrating Syrian refugees into the society is easier in Turkey rather than in Europe.
In the meantime, experts has launched legalization process of the visa-free regime between Turkey and Europe by the proposal of the EU on May 11, reported Ria Novosti.
President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz said that the visa liberalization will begin only after Ankara fulfills all requirements of the EU without exception.
To date, Turkey has fulfilled 67 out of 72 commitments to the European Union for canceling the visa regime.
Five remaining commitments that the Turkish authorities need to fulfill are to prevent corruption, to hold negotiations with Europol on operational agreement, to agree to judicial cooperation with all member states of the EU, to bring the internal rules on data protection in line with the EU standards and to revise the legislation on combating terrorism.
The rest terms on visa liberalization are expected to be fulfilled soon. Although, in his remarks, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan criticized the EU’s stance, saying Turkey would not change its anti-terror laws.
Canceling the visa regime with EU is one of the priorities for Turkey now. On May 3, Ankara cancelled the visa regime for the citizens of all 28 EU countries.
Nevertheless, the visa-free regime will be effective after the EU cancels the visa regime for Turkish citizens.
After cancellation of the visa regime, Turkish citizens will be able to stay without a visa for three months in Germany, Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Iceland, Lithuania, Latvia, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Hungary, Malta, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and Greece.
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Fatma Babayeva is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Fatma_Babayeva
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