EUROPE

Europe Grapples With Plan to Return

Refugees From Greece to Turkey
By JAMES KANTER MARCH 17, 2016

BRUSSELS European leaders edged closer early on Friday to a deal to return

asylum seekers from Greece to Turkey despite a host of legal, political and moral
issues raised by their latest effort to quell the migrant crisis.
The common stance agreed by the European Unions 28 national leaders still
needs the approval of Turkeys prime minister, Ahmet Davutoglu. He flew here late
Thursday for face-to-face talks on Friday.
Those negotiations will revolve around what incentives to grant Turkey, which
is not a European Union member, in return for Turkeys taking on the job of
housing more of the migrants while they wait for word on whether they qualify for
resettlement in Western Europe.
We need to put all our efforts into achieving an agreement with Turkey,
Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, told an early morning news conference.
These will be negotiations that will certainly be anything but easy, she warned.
Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council, the body representing
European leaders; Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European
Commission, the blocs executive agency; and Mark Rutte, the Dutch prime
minister, were expected to lead what are intended to be a final round of
negotiations with Mr. Davutoglu on Friday morning.
If Mr. Davutoglu makes objections, the 28 national leaders could meet again
during the day to consider adjusting their positions.

At stake in Brussels is not only Europes ability to manage one of the most
pressing crises of recent times, but also the influence of Ms. Merkel, who helped
develop the plan at a time when much of the rest of the Continent and a
substantial portion of her own country had turned against her policy of
welcoming refugees.
Before Mr. Davutoglus arrival, the leaders had grappled with the biggest
hurdles threatening a plan that was sprung on them by Ms. Merkel at a summit
meeting early this month.
With humanitarian groups saying such a plan would violate international law
on refugees, and national governments raising their own concerns, the European
leaders had faced an especially tricky challenge in finding consensus even as the
flow of people toward Europe continues.
Tens of thousands of migrants are backed up in squalid camps in Greece after
Macedonia closed its border crossing, blocking the way north.
In the session on Thursday, the leaders agreed to revise the proposal to
address concerns about the plan. Refugees would be returned to Turkey with the
assistance of the United Nations refugee agency, and each applicant for asylum in
Greece would be processed individually, according to the proposal.
Even so, the European Union would still pledge to resettle one Syrian from a
camp in Turkey in exchange for each Syrian who used an irregular route, like
crossing the Aegean Sea, to reach Greece.
That system to exchange refugees was abhorrent and showed that this deal
remains at its core both legally and morally unsound, Iverna McGowan, the head
of the European institutions office for Amnesty International, said Thursday.
Another sticking point was ensuring that Cyprus did not veto a resumption of
negotiations over Turkeys eventual membership in the European Union. The talks
were one of Ankaras conditions. Unless the Turks take certain steps, like opening
its ports to Cypriot ships, we can do nothing, President Nicos Anastasiades of
Cyprus told reporters earlier on Thursday.
Leaders revised the proposal to give Cyprus further reassurances that there

would be no immediate resumption of negotiations on European Union

membership for Turkey, which has occupied the northern half of Cyprus since
1974. But the leaders confirmed they were prepared to give about $6.6 billion in
aid to help organizations look after the nearly three million migrants already in
Turkey.
The talks with Mr. Davutoglu later Friday still could be lengthy, forcing leaders
to talk into the weekend or to schedule yet another meeting. Turkey has sought to
drive a hard bargain with demands including an acceleration of talks on its
membership of the bloc and, importantly for Ankara, visa-free travel for its citizens
across most of Europe starting this summer.
In their proposal the Europeans said visa-free travel would depend on Turkey
meeting several conditions.
Reflecting a general queasiness that many Europeans feel in making those
concessions to Turkey, which has taken an authoritarian turn under President
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Belgian prime minister, Charles Michel, told reporters
earlier on Thursday that Europeans should not succumb to what at times seems
like blackmail to reach a deal.
The plan brought to the surface a bewildering range of issues, including when
any system of returning refugees to Turkey should start.
Greece does not yet have the legal infrastructure, including sufficient numbers
of judges, to ensure that migrants are given a fair hearing before they are sent back
to Turkey.
Yet waiting more than a few days to put such a system in force could create a
powerful incentive for some of the millions of migrants currently in Turkey to
make even more determined efforts to reach Europe.
We all know obviously that if matters take too long then it will indeed have
this pull effect, but we have not yet specified any specific date or day, Ms. Merkel
told the news conference.
There are also widespread concerns that the deal with Turkey will be of limited
long term value if migrants scramble for alternatives, including boat trips across

the Mediterranean Sea to reach Italian islands like Lampedusa or the island state
of Malta, which is also a member of the European Union.
Alison Smale contributed reporting from Berlin.
A version of this article appears in print on March 18, 2016, on page A12 of the New York edition with the
headline: Europe Is Weighing Plan to Return Some Migrants.

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