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Turkey Will Not Take Back Migrants Already on Greek Islands

migrantsTurkey has said it will not take back migrants already on Greek islands as part of the deal proposed to European Union leaders at Monday’s European Union summit.
Ankara’s EU affairs minister Volkan Bozkir said on Thursday that the refugees returned to Turkey would “not include the existing refugees on the Greek islands,” according to an AFP report.
Under the EU deal, agreed in Brussels, for every refugee sent back to Turkey, a Syrian already living in the country would be resettled by the EU.
Turkey, however, re-affirmed that the deal only applied to new arrivals, and would not include those already on the Greek islands.
Bozkir, quoted by the Anatolia news agency, also said that Turkey is willing to resettle “tens of thousands, not hundreds of thousands or millions.”
The Turkish minister also said that EU countries would not be able to “cherry pick” the refugees they wanted, such as doctors and engineers, because the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees would be overseeing the process.
In return for agreeing to take back refugees making it to Greece, the EU promised Turkey 6 billion euros in aid and an acceleration of Ankara’s EU membership talks.

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