Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent)
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430. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if he will ensure that Ireland does not sign up to a new agreement with Turkey at the meeting of the European Council this week which, if successfully passed, will be in contravention of our international obligations to protect refugees, in accordance with the United Nations; if Ireland will contribute any further payments to Turkey or accept any more refugees, other than those agreed to in September 2015; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5114/16]

Charles Flanagan (Laois, Fine Gael)
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The migration crisis has dominated the EU agenda for the past year. While there have been divergent views among some member states about the best way to address the crisis, the Union has nonetheless succeeded in developing a comprehensive strategy aimed at addressing the root causes of the crisis; meeting the humanitarian needs of refugees; and reducing the large numbers of migrants arriving in Europe. The problem has been in the implementation of this strategy. Turkey has a key role to play if the migration crisis is to be managed, as the majority of migrants entering the EU transit Turkey. In November, the EU and Turkey agreed a Joint Action Plan, a central element of which was that Turkey would work to stop the flow of illegal migrants transiting Turkey. In a renewed attempt to get Turkey to do more to implement this plan, EU leaders met with the Turkish Prime Minister twice this month, on 7 March and on 17/18 March. In order to break the business model of the smugglers and to offer migrants an alternative to putting their lives at risk, the EU and Turkey agreed to end the irregular migration from Turkey to the EU. In order to achieve this goal, they agreed on the following:

1) All new irregular migrants crossing from Turkey into Greek islands as from 20 March 2016 will be returned to Turkey. This will take place in full accordance with EU and international law, thus excluding any kind of collective expulsion. All migrants will be protected in accordance with the relevant international standards. It will be a temporary and extraordinary measure which is necessary to end the human suffering. Migrants arriving in the Greek islands will be duly registered and any application for asylum will be processed individually by the Greek authorities in accordance with the Asylum Procedures Directive, in cooperation with UNHCR. Migrants not applying for asylum or whose application has been found unfounded or inadmissible in accordance with the said directive will be returned to Turkey.

2) For every Syrian being returned to Turkey from Greek islands, another Syrian will be resettled from Turkey to the EU. A mechanism will be established to ensure that this principle will be implemented as from the same day the returns start. On the EU side, resettlement under this mechanism will take place, in the first instance, by honouring the commitments made by the European Council on 20 July 2015, of which 18,000 places for resettlement remain. Any further need for resettlement will be carried out through a similar voluntary arrangement up to a limit of an additional 54,000 persons. Should these arrangements not meet the objective of ending the irregular migration and the number of returns come close to the numbers provided for above, this mechanism will be reviewed. Should the number of returns exceed the numbers provided for above, this mechanism will be discontinued.

3) Turkey has agreed to take any necessary measures to prevent new sea or land routes for illegal migration opening from Turkey to the EU, and will cooperate with neighbouring states as well as the EU to this effect.

4) Once irregular crossings between Turkey and the EU are ending or at least have been substantially and sustainably reduced, a Voluntary Humanitarian Admission Scheme will be activated. EU Member States will contribute on a voluntary basis to this scheme.

In addition to the above, the EU will accelerate visa liberalisation talks with Turkey and if necessary provide additional funding for the support of Syrian refugees in Turkey. The EU has already agreed to provide €3 billion of such funding. Ireland’s national contribution to this funding will be over €22 million.

The agreement reached with Turkey is fully consistent with international and EU law. Ireland and many other EU partners were clear that had to be the case, and the European Council has been assured on that point.

Insofar as the Irish response to the migration crisis is concerned, the Government voluntarily decided to accept up to 4,000 migrants. As of now, the resettlement and relocation arrangements agreed – including those in relation to Turkey - can be met from within this number. We also deployed a number of naval vessels to the Mediterranean which rescued more than 8,500 people. We have also contributed financially to various migration-related initiatives including €42 million in response to the Syria crisis since 2011, and have pledged a further €20 million for this year.