Ankara Stops Over 24,000 Migrants on Way to Europe in 45 Days - Turkish FM

The Turkish authorities have prevented more that 24,000 migrants from travelling further to Europe in the first 45 days of 2016, the country's foreign ministry said Wednesday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — In late November 2015, the European Commission held a joint summit with Turkey. Following the meeting, a deal was agreed upon, under which Turkey promised to prevent refugees currently in the country or arriving there from travelling to Europe in return for financial assistance in 2016-17 and renewed talks on its EU accession.

"During January and until Feb. 15, 24,120 irregular migrants were prevented from departing from our country and 93 migrant smugglers were captured by our law enforcement forces. Just on February 15, the Turkish Coast Guard Command stopped 985 irregular migrants," Foreign Ministry spokesman Tanju Bilgic was quoted by the Hurriyet newspaper as saying.

Biglic also said that Ankara had offered to sign readmission agreements with 14 countries in order to enable Turkey to take back migrants rejected by the European Union faster.

The European Union is currently struggling to manage a massive refugee crisis, with hundreds of thousands of people fleeing conflict-torn countries in the Middle East and North Africa.

The EU border agency Frontex recorded more than 1.8 million illegal border crossings in the bloc in 2015. Greece is the main transit route for refugees coming across the Aegean Sea from Turkey.

On March 7, the next EU-Turkey summit will take place to concentrate on joint efforts to combat the migrant crisis.