March 05, 2016•Update: March 05, 2016
ISTANBUL
EU Ambassador to Turkey, Hansjorg Haber, praised Turkish government’s efforts to stem the flow of refugees Friday ahead of the Turkey-EU Summit due Monday.
Addressing a press conference at the Consulate General of the Netherlands in Istanbul, Haber praised Turkey’s struggle to control the irregular migration in the country’s west and noted that numbers of refugee flows had been reduced.
Latest report published by European Commission shows that daily average of irregular arrivals of refugees from Turkey to Greece decreased to 1,960 in February; the number was nearly 7,000 in October.
The report also showed that 876,777 people arrived from Turkey to Greece since the beginning of 2015. An additional 177,000 migrants have entered the EU from Turkey since the beginning of the year.
Haber also said that October 2016 did not mean that Turkey will automatically be allowed into the EU's visa-free regime.
He said Turkey needs to meet all requirements mentioned in the EU’s visa liberalization dialogue launched in December 2013.
The agreement has 72 benchmarks in total; 36 criteria have been fulfilled or “almost fulfilled” so far by Turkey, Haber said.
After Turkey fulfills all the benchmarks, the EU will publish a third report in September.
Then, the European parliament and the bloc’s member states will decide whether to abolish visa requirements for Turkish citizens, Haber said.
The EU launched the visa liberalization dialogue with Turkey in December 2013, in parallel with the signature of the EU-Turkey Readmission Agreement.
