EU summit to declare Balkan migrant route closed

BRUSSELS — EU leaders held a summit with Turkey’s prime minister on Monday in order to back closing the Balkans migrant route and urge Ankara to accept deportations of large numbers of economic migrants from overstretched Greece. The European Union is hardening its stance in a bid to defuse the worst refugee crisis since World War II by increasingly putting the onus on Turkey and EU member Greece in return for aid. The two form the main migrant gateway to Europe, with Greece the link to the western Balkans route that hundreds of thousands of migrants had taken until countries along the way began shutting their gates in a position now backed by the 28-nation bloc. Tens of thousands of migrants desperate to reach wealthy Germany and Scandinavia are now trapped in debt-wracked Greece. Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said his country was ready to work “shoulder to shoulder” with Europe on a deal on migration they signed in November, while also raising Ankara’s long-stalled EU membership bid. “Turkey is ready to work with EU. Turkey is ready to be member of EU as well,” he said as he arrived in Brussels. Davutoglu said on Sunday he would discuss with his EU counterparts efforts to start within weeks building schools and hospitals for refugees with the three billion euros ($3.3 billion) pledged by Europe under the November deal. European leaders kept a pragmatic silence over the Turkish government’s forcible takeover last week of a leading newspaper that had staunchly opposed President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Summit co-host the Netherlands said the bloc would not only push Turkey to stop the flow to Europe of all non-Syrian migrants but also eventually war-hit Syrians themselves. — AFP