Ankara is to issue work permits for Syrian refugees to discourage them from migrating to Europe amid EU pressure to reduce the number people making the journey, Turkey’s Minister for European Affairs said yesterday.
Speaking after meeting European Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans, Volkan Bozkır said: “We are trying to reduce the pressure for illegal migration by giving Syrians in Turkey work permits.”
“The refugee crisis, by nature, is the most important problem for the EU as well as for Turkey. This is even an agony for humanity,” Bozkır said.
Last week Timmermans said the EU was far from satisfied with Turkey’s efforts to prevent migrants from crossing the Aegean Sea to Greece.
The Turkish minister said the number of migrants and refugees captured attempting to travel illegally across the Aegean Sea has exceeded 150,000, double the number captured in 2014.
“Turkish authorities capture around 500 migrants daily,” he said.
“Illegal migration should be turned into legal migration and human traffickers who create the environment of illegal migration should be arrested. Efforts made by coastguards should be beefed up so that there will be no toddlers washing up on beaches,” he added.
Timmermans said during the press conference that the number of migrants crossing the Aegean Sea from Turkey to EU member state, Greece was still too high.
“Between 2,000 and 3,000 people arrive every day. We cannot be satisfied at this stage,” Timmermans said.
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