‘EU, Turkey should ink deal on refugees’ Hungary's foreign minister says


The Hungarian foreign minister said Thursday that the European Union and Turkey should hold negotiations on the asylum-seekers waiting at the Greek-Turkish border.

"Turkey and the EU should ink a new agreement," Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said in a press conference.

Szijjarto said the pressure on the Turkish-Greek border would not decrease unless Brussels took Turkey's requests and concerns seriously.

He added that he had a phone conversation with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu and they discussed energy security and the refugee crisis.

Turkey prevented 455,000 migrants and refugees from crossing into Europe last year, Szijjarto said, adding that Turkey will face another flow of refugees from Syria.

Noting a 2016 EU-Turkey refugee agreement, he said the EU has also not paid Turkey the promised 6 billion euro ($6.65 billion) to help support programs to care for the refugees.

The EU-Turkey agreement had been successful in stemming refugee flows to Europe in recent years, but the EU's reluctance to take in migrants and refugees from Turkey and bureaucratic hurdles in transferring the promised relief funds, has led to sharp criticism from Turkish politicians.

Under the 2016 deal, the EU was to provide financial assistance, while Turkey agreed to stop irregular migrants heading to Europe. Turkey says less than half of that amount has been delivered.

Ankara also criticized its European partners for not implementing other parts of the agreement, and backing away from their political commitments, including negotiations on upgrading the customs union.

Last month, Turkey opened its borders to Europe for asylum-seekers and migrants, accusing the EU of failing to keep up its part of the 2016 refugee deal.

Ankara also warned that due to incessant attacks on civilians in Idlib, Syria, 1 million refugees were moving toward Turkey's borders.

With 3.7 million Syrian refugees in Turkey already, more than any other country in the world, Ankara says it cannot absorb another refugee wave.