The death, believed to be the first of its kind during the crisis, forced Bulgaria’s premier to fly home from a summit of European leaders in Brussels where the agreement with Turkey was announced.
Under the plan, Turkey agreed to tackle people-smugglers and take measures to keep more of the millions of refugees fleeing the Syrian conflict from crossing by sea to Europe.
In exchange, European leaders agreed to give Ankara more funds to tackle the problem and to speed up work to ease visa restrictions on Turkish citizens travelling to Europe.
- European Council President Donald Tusk said the deal was a “major step forward” but added that “an agreement with Turkey only makes sense if it effectively contains the flow of refugees.”
Turkey is the main departure point for the more than 600,000 migrants who have entered Europe this year, most of them making the short but dangerous sea crossing to the Greek islands, but some also coming by land.
Tusk said Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov told him about the Turkish border shooting just before he left the summit, adding: “It shows how important our discussion was. Prime Minister Borisov is aware that we are ready to help.”
Bulgaria shooting
Bulgaria, which has deployed 2,000 guards, police and troops along its porous border with Turkey, said the Afghan was shot in an “incident” as a large group of migrants tried to cross the frontier.
“One man suffered a gunshot wound in the incident and died on the way to hospital,” an interior ministry spokeswoman told AFP.
Interior ministry chief of staff Georgy Kostov told public BNR radio that a group of 50 Afghan migrants was intercepted by two border guards and a police officer.
“They put up resistance during the arrest. One of the officers fired warning shots and, in his words, one of the migrants was wounded by a ricochet and later died,” Kostov said.
The crisis has already claimed the lives of more than 3,000 people this year who have drowned while making the dangerous crossing of the Mediterranean as they flee conflict and repression in the Middle East and elsewhere.
The Turkish deal came after European Commission officials visited Turkey on Thursday in a last-ditch effort to persuade the government to sign up to the plan, following a visit by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Brussels last week.
Turkish officials presented their EU counterparts with a “wish list” during the talks in Ankara on Thursday, which European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker later talked the leaders through at their summit in Brussels.
- The demands included three billion euros ($3.4 billion) in new aid, easing visa restrictions, opening new chapters in Turkey’s long-stalled accession negotiations for EU membership, being included on the list of “safe countries” for asylum and to have more Turkey-EU summits, an EU source said.
Juncker told AFP that there was no concrete amount of money in the final deal and the figures would have to be negotiated.
No visas, no deal
Juncker added that Turkey would not get a free ride when it came to the easing of visa rules, and there would be a clear link between its commitments to helping manage the migrant crisis and progress on its EU membership.
- “We have agreed with our Turkish partners that the visa liberalisation process will be accelerated but this does not mean that we will step away from the basic criteria,” he said.
- Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu had stressed there would be no agreement without a visa deal.
“We will not sign a re-admission deal before we obtain progress on the question of Schengen visas (to the EU’s passport-free area) and an easing of conditions for visas for Turkish citizens,” Davutoglu told Turkish TGRT television in an interview.
French President Francois Hollande said there had to be “clear rules” on what Turkey could expect, playing down Ankara’s demands for the easing of visa rules.
The 28-nation European Union has been left more divided than ever by the migration crisis, especially given fears the Schengen zone could collapse as countries try to curb the huge numbers of migrants criss-crossing the continent.
Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has already faced criticism for his hardline stance towards migrants, announced Thursday his country had completed construction of a fence along its southern border with Croatia to stem the massive daily influx.
Croatia said more than 4,800 people had entered on Wednesday, bringing the overall number of arrivals in the EU member state to nearly 175,000.
(AFP)
france24.com
16/10/15
--
-
Related:
EU requests Turkey's help to stem flow of refugees
EU offers Turkey a possible €3bn in aid and the prospect of easier travel visas and "re-energised" talks on joining the bloc in return for its help stemming the flow of migrants to Europe.
- All EU countries must be prepared to send security staff to the bloc's external borders, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said...
GR
FR
DE
ES
IT
RU
EU
Member states of the European Union (EU) are urged to accelerate their delivery on agreed measures, especially their financial pledges, to mitigate Europe's biggest refugee crisis in recent history during the summit held in Brussels on Thursday...
ReplyDeleteLeaders of EU member states are gathering for their fourth meeting on refugee crisis this year. During the two-day summit, EU leaders are supposed to focus on topics including strengthening EU external borders, increasing support to countries in EU neighborhood, and other refugee issues.
However, the report submitted to the summit by the European Commission showed that EU member states are lagging behind on political promises.
According to the report describing the implementation of the priority actions under the European Agenda on Migration, only a handful of EU member state have so far delivered on helping to match the budget plans on migration and help Frontex, the EU's border agency, and EASO, the EU's asylum support office.
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said on the report that his institution has lived up to all its commitments and their contributions have seen concrete results, but member states need to do more.
"Noble words need to be followed by concrete actions back home," he stressed.
PERSONNEL
Concerning operational measures, the report said the hotspot approach is now starting to function, but national experts are in urgent need to make the schemes to function effectively.
Frontex's latest call requested 775 additional border guards, screeners, de-briefers, and interpreters. And EASO wanted hundreds of experts to help provide information to the new arrivals.
Both agencies are helping in the distribution of asylum seekers to other member states at so-called hotspots.
However, so far, the commitments made by EU member states fell far short of the real needs, the report said.
Only six member states have responded to the call from Frontex with 48 border officials. EASO got 81 experts out of the 374 needed............http://www.china.org.cn/world/2015-10/16/content_36821677.htm
Bulgarie : un migrant afghan tué à la frontière bulgaro-turque....
ReplyDeleteUn Afghan arrivant de Turquie a été tué en tentant d'entrer illégalement en Bulgarie, jeudi. Le drame coïncide avec l'adoption à Bruxelles d'un "plan d'action commun" entre l'UE et Ankara pour endiguer les flux migratoires.
Un Afghan venant de Turquie a été abattu, jeudi 15 octobre dans la soirée, par des gardes-frontières bulgares en tentant d'entrer illégalement en Bulgarie.
Ce migrant faisait partie d'un groupe de 54 personnes qui a essayé d'entrer dans le pays, selon le gouvernement bulgare. Les clandestins avaient été repérées vers 19 h GMT par une patrouille sur la route près de la ville de Sredets (sud-est), à proximité de la frontière bulgaro-turque, a annoncé Gueorgui Kostov, un haut responsable du ministère de l'Intérieur.
"Ils ont fait preuve de résistance"
Ils "n'avaient pas obéi" à un ordre de s'arrêter de la patrouille de la police, a-t-il précisé. "Aucun des migrants n'était armé, mais ils ont fait preuve de résistance". Interpelés, ils se sont présentés comme des Afghans mais n'avaient pas de papiers, a-t-il ajouté. La patrouille a alors tiré en l'air sans intention de toucher quelqu'un. "Un des migrants a été blessé par un ricochet d'une balle - selon les dépositions d'un des trois policiers - et a succombé à ses blessures sur la route vers l'hôpital", a indiqué le ministère..............france24.com