After long talks on 7 March, the EU and Turkey managed to come up with a new deal with regards to the refugee crisis. The new deal includes first of all that all irregular migrants that travel to Greece by sea should be returned to Turkey. For every migrant sent back, the EU would resettle migrants directly from Turkey across the EU. The move is set to discourage illegal and dangerous travels by migrants across the sea. The deal furthermore included a speed up of transferring the earlier agreed 3 billion € to Turkey and to give another 3 billion €, therefore 6 billion € in total. Turkey would be granted visa-free travel as well before the end of the summer accession talks would be accelerated. While the new deal is considered as necessary, it is criticized as Turkey is becoming more authoritarian and less respectful of human rights. EU Member States still have to vote on the deal next week.

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For a relatively favourable view on the deal by the Economist click here.
For more critical articles on the deal click here and here.