Turkey stops 24,120 irregular migrants in 45 days

Turkish authorities prevented more than 500 refugee a day from traveling to Europe in the first two months of 2016, officials have said ahead of a summit between Turkey and the European Union during which the flow of refugees to the continent will be discussed.

"During January and until Feb. 15, [in total], 24,120 irregular migrants were prevented from departing from our country and 93 migrant smugglers were captured by our law enforcement forces. Just on Feb. 15, the Turkish Coast Guard Command stopped 985 irregular migrants," Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Tanju Bilgiç said March 2.

The same day in Brussels, however, officials from the 28-nation bloc told the Reuters news agency that Germany, the principal destination for migrants, was looking for daily flows to drop below 1,000 a day before it would consider taking any refugees directly from Turkey for resettlement.

Three months after Ankara agreed to help tackle Europe's worst migration crisis since World War II, more than 2,000 people a day are still crossing the Aegean Sea in dinghies and fishing trawlers from Turkey to the Greek islands. 

At a press conference in Ankara on Feb. 29 after two days of talks with Turkish officials, Frontex Executive Director Fabrice Leggeri told reporters that the number of migrants crossing into Europe in January and February this year was 30 times higher than the figures year-on-year.

EU officials told the Hürriyet Daily News that the number of irregular migration cases from Turkey to Greece was just 1,700 in January 2015, rising to an astounding 68,000 in January 2016.

Bilgiç also announced that Turkey had offered to sign readmission agreements with 14 countries in a move aimed at enabling Turkey to take back migrants...