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1st LD Writethru: EU, Turkey mull new proposals to tackle migrant crisis

Xinhua, March 8, 2016 Adjust font size:

The European Union (EU) and Turkey on Monday discussed new proposals to tackle the exacerbated migrant crisis which was imperiling the bloc's passport-free policy.

The scheduled half-day EU-Turkey summit which gathered European leaders and Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu was prolonged into late Monday. Media reported that Davutoglu surprised his European leaders with new proposals.

Ankara asked extra 3 billion euros (3.30 billion U.S. dollars) from the EU for aid to help stem the massive migrant flows as the country was hosting millions of refugees, mainly from war-torn Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, who were keen to cross Turkish border to seek asylums in Europe.

Brussels already promised to provide 3 billion euros to Ankara to tackle the migrant crisis in November last year. But the Turkish side complained ahead of the summit that the EU has not delivered the fund yet.

Turkey reportedly promised to make more efforts to help solve the EU's migrant crisis at the summit. Crucially, Davutoglu outlined proposals to resettle one Syrian refugee in Europe for every Syrian returned to Turkey from the Greek islands.

European officials were investigating whether a one-for-one resettlement program was "legally and logistically possible", media reported.

Turkey has 2.7 million refugees and other hundreds of thousands of refugees were waiting on the other side of the border, said Davutoglu at a NATO press conference after his meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.

"Many of them (refugees) are trying to go to Europe," Davutoglu said. "Before coming here we worked on a new package of proposals...in order to discourage new refugees to cross Turkey."

"With these new proposals we aim to rescue refugees, discourage those who misuse and exploit their situation and find a new era in Turkey-EU relations," he added.

Turkey also wanted to speed up its accession process to the bloc. On his arrival Monday morning, Davutoglu told reporters that the summit could be a "turning point" for its membership bid.

"Turkey is ready to be a member of the EU as well," he said.

Europe was experiencing the worst migrant crisis after the Second World War. Greece, a front line country in the migrant crisis, was currently seeing some 2,000 refugees arriving on its shores each day. Endit