Croatia to Pay 7.4 Million Euros to Turkey to Help Slow Down the Refugee Wave?

The latest from the migrant crisis in Croatia.

Leaders of the European Union members will gather on Sunday afternoon in Brussels for a summit with Turkey, where the main topic of discussions will be the co-operation in stopping the influx of migrants to Europe. The importance of this meeting for the EU is demonstrated by the fact that the EU will be represented by heads of governments of member states, including Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanović, which is not common for EU summits with third countries, where the Union is usually represented by the presidents of the European Council and the Commission. Turkey will be represented by Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, reports Index.hr and Vecernji List on November 28, 2015.

EU leaders will try to make Turkey agree to closer cooperation to help slow down the influx of Syrian refugees who are mostly coming from Turkey through the Greek islands and continuing to the north of Europe. Last month, EU and Turkey have reached an agreement in principle about a joint action plan for dealing with the refugee crisis, and now that agreement needs to be made more detailed. The plan includes financial aid to Turkey, which would in turn help stop the migrant wave.

Turkey, which according to official figures has accommodated 2.2 million Syrians, expects increased financial assistance from the EU and visa regime liberalization. The action plan foresees three billion euros in aid to Turkey, of which 500 million euros would be paid from the EU budget, with the rest covered by the member states. The largest share would be paid by Germany, 534 million euros, while Croatia should paid about 7.4 million euros. However, most states have still not offered their contributions, so it is not clear whether the amount will be collected.

That money would be used to improve the living conditions of refugees, of whom only 300,000 live in refugee camps, while the other 1.9 million are dispersed in major Turkish cities. The money would not be paid directly to Turkey, but would be used for funding of the projects such as education of refugee children and health care, then for the repatriation of illegal migrants and the development of the coast guard.

The trend of reduced inflow of migrants to Croatia has continued. From midnight to 9 am on Saturday, 1,015 refugees entered Croatia. There were just 17 people in the refugee reception centre in Slavonski Brod. Since the beginning of the migration crisis, 449,858 migrants and refugees have passed through Croatia.

However, close to 4,000 migrants landed yesterday morning at Piraeus, and most of them started moving towards the Greek-Macedonian border on their way to Europe. Regardless of the partial closure of the borders for some migrants, they do not intend to change their plans. About a thousand people, mostly Iranians, Somalis, Pakistanis, and Bangladeshi, spent Friday blocked at the border, a day after some 200 of them tried to get through to Macedonia. They tore down the barbed wire fence and threw stones and rubbish at the Macedonian police.

 

Subscribe to our newsletter

the fields marked with * are required

Email: *
First name:
Last name:
Gender:	Male Female
Country:
Birthday:	[DD] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 [MM] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 [YYYY] 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023

Please don't insert text in the box below!