EU Council boss asks migrants to stop coming to Europe

EU Council President Donald Tusk told illegal economic migrants on Thursday (March 3) not to risk their lives or money to make a perilous trip to Europe “for nothing” but said unilateral actions by European Union states to deal with the crisis must stop.

The ultimate aim was to eliminate the illegal sea transit of migrants from Turkey to Greece, Tusk said after meeting Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in Ankara and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras in Athens, although he said no specific numbers had been agreed with the Turks.

“We pay utmost importance to the ceasefire that has been implemented under vulnerable conditions. Because if there is a ceasefire in Syria the flow of refugees to Turkey will lessen even more and the flow of migrants trying to cross into Europe from Turkey will also reduce. But unfortunately, the breaches of ceasefire, especially by Russian forces and Syrian regime renders the ceasefire even more vulnerable,” Davutoglu said at a joint news conference with Tusk in Ankara.

Meanwhile, Tusk said that sending illegal migrants back from Europe would break the business model of smugglers arranging their sea crossing.

“We agreed that the refugee flows still remain far too high and that further action is needed. It is for Turkey to decide how best it is to achieve such an action. To many in Europe, the most promising method seems to be a fast and large scale mechanism to ship back irregular migrants arriving in Greece. It would effectively break the business model of the smugglers,” he said.

Tusk was on a trip through Balkan states and Turkey to try to drum up support for cohesion on how to deal with hundreds of thousands of migrants – a crisis that threatens to tear the bloc apart – before an EU summit on Monday (March 7).

Speaking earlier in Greece, which has been a primary gateway of migrants flooding into Europe for more than a year, Tusk said anyone who was not a refugee should stay away.

Up to 30,000 refugees and migrants have been stranded in Greece from progressive border closures further up the “Balkan corridor”, the route taken to get into wealthier central and northern Europe. Austria and countries along the Balkans migration route have imposed restrictions on their borders, limiting the numbers able to cross. Many of the migrants hope to reach Germany. Macedonian police fired tear gas to disperse hundreds of migrants who stormed the border from Greece on Monday (February 29).

Austria and countries along the Balkans migration route have imposed restrictions on their borders, limiting the numbers able to cross. Many of the migrants hope to reach Germany. Macedonian police fired tear gas to disperse hundreds of migrants who stormed the border from Greece on Monday.