Can someone please explain the border and refugee system here? What exactly is he threatening to do? And if there are a lot of refugees, can't admission to EU be a separate decision?
Turkey has some 4 million [0] refugees (overwhelmingly Syrian [1]) which the EU supports financially, as well as helping to pay for coastal patrols. Migrants seeking to get to the eastern Mediterranean are instead returned to Turkey. Erdogan states, "if you try to frame our operation [in northern Syria] as an invasion, our task is simple: we will open the doors and send 3.6 million migrants to you" [2]. I can't find any specifics but presumably he's referring to Turkey ceasing to intercept and warehouse refugees who would otherwise head straight to Europe.
The EU pays Turkey a lot of money. In return Turkey patrols its coastline to prevent migrants from boating across to the Greek islands. They can still get in by making the longer trip from north africa. Numbers of migrants are down since 2015 so perhaps it has been working?
I don't think the numbers are correct are down, situation in Greek Islands is critical. If you read the local press there are islands that are so overwhelmed that the locals are migrating to mainland cause they can no longer live there.
"..in his speech, Erdogan accused Europe of failing to keep its promises..... and that only half of the €6 billion pledged by the EU under the agreement had arrived. The claim was rejected by European Commission spokesperson, Natasha Bertaud, who said that €5.6 billion had been provided and the rest was "due to be allocated shortly."
A reminder that this impacts fellow humans https://www.savethechildren.net/news/save-children-statement...
