EU says Turkey safe country for return of migrants

BRUSSELS, June 10 (KUNA) -- The EU interior ministers discussed the issue of migration during their meeting in Luxembourg on Friday.
Speaking at a press conference this evening, Klaas Dijkhoff, Dutch State Secretary for Security and Justice whose country holds the current EU Presidency said Turkey is "safe for returning migrants." "We also talked about visa liberalization today. We see progress on all proposals including Turkey but we have not taken a decision yet. Some member states have expressed concrete worries," he said.
Dijkhoff said they will continue to address these worries to come to an agreement for visa liberalization for Georgia, Ukraine, Kosovo and Turkey if they meet the criteria as soon as possible.
For his part, EU commissioner for home affairs Dimitris Avramopoulos told the same press conference that arrivals of migrants on Greek islands continue to decrease, while returns to Turkey have increased.
He noted that yesterday 139 people were relocated from Greece to France in one single transfer.
In total, 2,195 migrants have been relocated so far, he added. (end) nk.mb