Inside Story

Can Turkey help stop the flow of refugees into Europe?

The EU will provide Turkey with cash and other incentives in exchange for help on refugees.

After months of confusion and disputes on how to deal with the refugee crisis facing Europe, the European Union has finally come up with what it hopes will be the solution.

It has struck a deal with Turkey to try to control the flow of asylum seekers.

For more than $3bn, the EU desperately wants Turkey to keep refugees out of Europe.

In exchange its leaders have promised to open negotiations on a new chapter in Ankara’s bid to join the EU.

They have also pledged to speed up the process of allowing Turkish citizens to visit the EU without a visa.

Under the agreement, Turkey will increase patrols in the Aegean Sea and on its land borders with Greece and Bulgaria.

Turkey has also agreed to take back refugees whose asylum applications have been denied by EU countries.

But is that enough? And can Turkey succeed where other countries have failed?

 

Presenter: Adrian Finighan

Guests:

Alexandra Stiglmayer – Senior analyst for the European Stability Initiative. 

Cigdem Nas – General secretary of the Economic Development Foundation. 

Marc Pierini – Visiting scholar at Carnegie Europe and former EU ambassador to Turkey.