Europe opens its door to 75m Turks as price of migrant deal

Migrants are ready to take terrible risks to get to  Greek islands such as  Lesbos after making the  crossing from Turkey
Migrants are ready to take terrible risks to get to Greek islands such as Lesbos after making the crossing from Turkey
OZGE ELIF KIZIL/GETTY IMAGES

Turkey’s 75 million citizens will be given the right to travel to and within Europe without a visa next year after European Union leaders took a gamble yesterday that the country could solve the continent’s migration crisis.

A summit in Brussels made concessions to Turkey including an open-ended financial commitment — beginning with €3 billion in funding next year —and the reopening of talks on the country’s application for EU membership talks, despite fears the country is sliding into authoritarianism.

The deal is the first step to creating a new European system with Turkey stopping all irregular migratory movements to Europe, in return for taking 400,000 people from Turkish refugee camps every year who will be shared across EU countries in the Schengen passport-free travel