Brussels, 01/06/2016 (Agence Europe) - According to a European Commission press release, the readmission agreement between the EU and Turkey entered into force on 1 June. This provides for Turkey to take back Turkish nationals entering the EU illegally, and also the nationals of other third countries who transit Turkey before arriving in the EU.
Signed in December 2013, this readmission agreement will go hand in hand with the visa liberalisation regime promised to Ankara in exchange. The entry into force of the two agreements was accelerated as part of the EU-Turkey agreement of 18 March to regulate migration flows. The two agreements were initially due to be launched in 2017. The agreement of 18 March provides for the visa waiver regime to be granted at the end of June if Ankara has fulfilled 72 criteria - which Turkey is currently trying to ensure.
The readmission agreement also provides for the EU to resettle Syrian refugees from Turkey. So far 383 of them have been resettled in the EU. In exchange for this resettlement, Turkey committed to taking back all migrants who arrived in Greece illegally, on the basis of the bilateral readmission agreement between the two countries. This bilateral Greece-Turkey agreement is today topped by the broader EU-Turkey readmission agreement. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)