New Migrant Surge Hits Greece Despite EU-Turkey Deal
EU paid Erdogan €6 billion to curb migrant trafficking
The European Union’s deal with Turkey is failing to stop migrants from crossing into Europe, German media reports suggest. “The number of refugees coming into Europe through Turkey has risen sharply,” writes the German weekly Der Spiegel citing EU officials. In the early months of 2018 over 15,000 migrant crossed over from Turkey into Greece–a “nine-fold increase compared to last year’s figures,” Austrian newspaper Heute reported.
In March 2016, German Chancellor Angela Merkel had reached a migrant deal with Turkish President Recep Erdogan. The agreement obliged Turkey to rein in migrant trafficking in Aegean in return for billions of euros in ‘aid’. As part of the 2016 deal, Merkel also agreed to accept 150,000 to 200,000 migrants from Turkey against the wishes of several European member states.
Chancellor Merkel is pushing for similar deals with the Muslim-majority countries of North Africa. “We must agree on similar deals with other countries, such as in North Africa, in order to get better control over the Mediterranean sea refugee routes,” Merkel said months after sealing the deal with Turkey.
Despite Erdogan’s repeated threats to scrap the deal and ‘flood Europe with migrants’, EU continues to cut large checks to Ankara. By March 2018, European countries shipped more than €6 billion to Erdogan under the deal.
Erdogan, however, isn’t satisfied with financial incentives alone. He also wants visa-free travel for 80 million Turkish nationals within Europe’s Schengen zone.
German weekly Der Spiegel reported the surging migrant influx across Turkey’s borders:
In recent months, more migrants have come into Europe through Turkey than last year. According to the European Commission (EU’s executive arm), the number of unauthorized crossings on the coasts and territorial borders of the EU has more than doubled compared to the first quarter of the previous year. As of May 6, estimated 15,450 refugees entered Europe through this route.
The EU Commissioner for Greece called for more border officers to be dispatched and providing the EU border and coastal protection agency Frontex with better equipment. Member states need to urgently allocate resources for the agency to keep its operations running and to take up additional tasks, [EU Commissioner] Avramopoulos said. [translation by the author]
The sudden surge in migrant inflow coincides with Turkey’s renewed efforts to join the European Union. Earlier this week, Turkey’s Deputy Prime Minister Recep Akdag told a German newspaper that he wanted his country’s “EU accession to be sped up.” The EU had suspended the accession talks after Erdogan regime began a massive clampdown on dissidents and Kurdish minority in the wake of Turkey’s 2016 military coup.
While the European politicians and media are clueless about the real nature of the demographic shift taking place in the continent, Erdogan sees it as an instrument of war against the Christian West. Last March, he told his supporters that Turks were “the future of Europe.” “My brothers and sisters in Europe…have not just three but five children,” the Turkish leader declared.
Europe’s ruling elite are appalled by President Donald Trump’s proposal to build a border wall to curb illegal immigration. They would rather build bridges than erect border walls. We Europeans ‘celebrate when walls are brought down and bridges are built,’ EU Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini said last year while rebuking Trump administration’s immigration policy.
By refusing to secure its outer borders, Europe has outsourced the security and welfare of its citizens to third-world rogue actors like Erdogan. Funneling billions of euros to Turkey’s Islamic regime will only strengthen terrorism at Europe’s doorsteps.
Video: ‘Turkey wants full EU membership,’ says Erdogan
[Cover image via YouTube]
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Comments
“The European Union’s deal with Turkey is failing to stop migrants from crossing into Europe”
Unexpectedly.
Gee lets not defend our own borders, lets outsource it to someone else for 6 BILLION and trust they will spend that money the way we want them to.
SMH…
It is the same thing which helped bring about the fall of the Roman Empire. How can so many not see this for what it is? This is an invasion and the EU fails to see it as exactly that. They aren’t moving in mass numbers to become part of the countries but to overtake them and bring them down.
The payments will fund terrorism and further erode Europe. They will probably not wake up to reality until it is too late and they find themselves displaced and forced to submit to Islam or die.
Not quite. The Roman Empire had grown into a huge taxing machine. There were outlying provinces who welcomed the barbarians because of the prospect of less government in their lives. Isn’t there a book out, the Last Centurion about how disillusioned centurions would go out into the woods and lose their shield and join the barbarians? What the leaders in the EU are doing is unprecedented. The secularism kick-started by the French Revolution is bearing fruit. (That’s ironic.) The people in secular morass are losing their will to live and procreate. They are laying down to die, so the leaders are replacing their old tired with new immigrants. Unfortunately for those leaders, the new immigrants will not be compliant.
They procreate. They just use modern technology to plan their families. When you give up all the other accoutrements of modern life and live like the Amish (who reproduce copiously), you will have a non-hypocritical case for your point of view.
Until then, it is none of your business.
Actually,when they allow highly reproductive people, especially when they are going to be a burden on taxpayers for generations, we all have a right to weigh in on rather or not their initial numbers should be lowered or they should be rejected outright.
Roman was invaded by armies, not immigrants. Many of those armies had previously been allies of the Romans and had learned Roman tactics and acquired Roman weapons.
Some became foes because they saw the chance to plunder and some did it out of grievances they had with Roman hegemony. Some were conquering armies that swept the continent.
The ‘Fall’ has been the subject of many scholarly books. I thank you for simplifying it to one paragraph in order to make an analogy that doesn’t work. The great majority of the immigrants who come to this country, either legally or otherwise, do it with the intention to assimilate.
I, too, would object if the Mongol hordes or even the Ottoman Empire appeared on our doorstep. Have they?
Too bad Jean Raspail didn’t have a different ending for his book “The Camp of the Saints”.
The EU deserves Turkey, and Turkey deserves the EU.
These refugees are like locusts, devouring, destroying everything in their path. Very destructive parasites.
What’s that saying about paying the ‘Danegeld’?
“Turkey repeatedly threatened to terminate the agreement because, firstly, the EU has not paid the stipulated amount, and secondly, the visa freedom for Turkish citizens provided for under the agreement has not been implemented.”
Small wonder he’s opened the spigot again. The EU hasn’t kept up its end of the bargain so why should he? The thing about paying the Danegeld is that paying far less than the stipulated amount doesn’t work out so well. I’ve been hard on Erdogan, but in this case, I have to laugh at the EU for being shocked at the cost of going back on what it agreed to.
What fools these Euros be! The same Turk who sent his people to invade Germany, who has threatened to flood Europe with Moslems was paid by the Euros to send the invasion force. Now Turkey not only has the invasion force in Europe but also has the money to fund and arm them—which Turkey is busily doing. Erdogan wants to be caliph, and the Euros are paying him so to become.
They already had the money; and the weapons.
“It is the same thing which helped bring about the fall of the Roman Empire. How can so many not see this for what it is?”
Merkel et al are many things, but they are not stupid. They see this for what it is. They want this. Hail Hydra!
Was the money paid in pallets of cash? See President 0bama does have something to show those leaders of the EU.
Did you have similar outrage at the pallets of cash shipped to Iraq and never accounted for? If you did, why did you choose to highlight Obama? If not, try not being such an obvious hypocrite.
While you are at it, contemplate ZTE.
Obama’s indiscretions are more recent, and therefore more relevant. And, Obama is the worst president I have seen in my life, I am willing to bet that when given time history may well judge Obama to be the worst president in our history.