Ankara
ANKARA
Turkey’s EU minister called Monday for providing refugees and asylum seekers legal routes to reach Europe.
"Illegal immigration needs to take a legal form," said Volkan Bozkir, Turkey's minister for European Union affairs and chief negotiator, adding that passage of refugees to Europe should be in accordance with "the [previously] reached agreements and the to be-provided quotas."
Bozkir was speaking at a press conference with First Vice-President of European Commission Frans Timmermans at the EU Ministry in the Turkish capital following a meeting where the two discussed Turkey-EU relations, Ankara's accession process, visa talks and the refugee crisis Europe faces.
He said Turkey was making substantial efforts to make sure human traffickers are prosecuted in a bid to block the flow of refugees.
"The number of those caught in illegal immigration has passed 150,000,” he said, adding that an average of “500 immigrants per day” were caught by Turkish authorities.
The “refugee issue, in its nature, is a very important issue for both the EU and Turkey, this is a human tragedy," Bozkir said.
He said that Turkey had started applying visas for Syrian citizens from third countries with plans to provide work permits to the Syrian refugees which he said would "reduce pressure over refugees".
Faced with the worst refugee crisis since World War II, the EU has offered Turkey €3 billion funds to limit the flow of asylum seekers crossing into Europe in exchange for facilitated visa rules for Turkish citizens seeking to visit Europe and the opening of chapters in the accession negotiations.
On his part, Timmermans said "both sides have faced common challenges" of global and regional nature, calling for closer cooperation to solve the refugee issue and strengthen economic ties.
“It is our joint responsibility to decrease number of refugees," Timmermans said earlier Monday after a separate meeting with Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.
He also praised Turkey's plan to issue work permit to Syrian refugees as "a very positive step".
The International Organization for Migration said this month that a total of 1,004,356 refugees and migrants have reached Europe by sea in 2015, almost five times the previous year’s total of 219,000.
"Total migrant inflows through the blue borders of Greece approached 850,000 arrivals for the year," IOM said, adding that "106,776 migrants crossed into the Greek islands during the month of December, an average of over 3,400 per day."
Syria’s civil war, now in its fifth year, has left at least 250,000 people dead, according to the UN. More than 11 million Syrians have been internally displaced and millions more are seeking refuge abroad.
Among the European countries, Germany has received a record one million refugees last year, mostly from Syria and Iraq, and the refugee influx mostly overstretched communities and municipalities across the country.
