Turkey 'Blackmailing' Brussels in Its Refugee Action Plan

Earlier in March, the EU-Turkey summit resulted in a deal on stemming migration flows into the European Union from the Middle East through Turkey.

NEW DELHI (Sputnik) — Ankara is blackmailing the European Union in the negotiations over their joint refugee plan, taking advantage of the bloc’s efforts to prevent another massive refugee influx from destabilizing the union, Belgian Member of Parliament Herman De Croo told Sputnik.

"Turkey is blackmailing Europe in a certain sense. We pay money to Turkey so they could keep the Syrians <…> if they come to Europe they can reverse and destroy the whole system," De Croo from the Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats (VLD) party said.

The politician, who also holds the honorary title of Belgium’s Minister of State, added that Ankara had been taking advantage of many Syrian refugees’ desire to stay in countries close to their homeland when securing the deal with the European Union.

"Turkey has a big problem of refugees itself. The solution, the only one, is peace in Syria, so that Syrian refugees can go back to their homeland," the parliamentarian noted.

Turkey has demanded an additional 3 billion euros (some $3.3 billion) from the European Union to deal with migrants on top of the earlier 3-billion-euro EU pledge. In exchange for the additional funding, Ankara has offered to take back all undocumented migrants that enter the European Union through Turkey and swap them on a one-for-one basis for legal Syrian refugees who are seeking to enter the bloc.

A final agreement between the European Union and Turkey is expected to be announced at the next EU-Turkey summit, on March 17-18.