Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soilu said 76,000 358 migrants crossed the country’s borders with the EU amid Turkish leader Tayyip Erdogan’s statement that Ankara decided to open them.
Erdogan said earlier that his country has opened its borders with the EU to Syrian refugees. On Saturday evening, Soylu said that more than 47 thousand migrants left Turkey.
“As of 9.55 (the same as Moscow time), the number of migrants who have left our country through Edirne (a province bordering Greece and Bulgaria in the north-west of Turkey) is 76,358”, – Soylu said in a statement on Twitter.
The heads of state and government of the EU member states in mid-March 2016 agreed with Turkey a joint plan to combat the migration crisis. It provides, in particular, the provision of financial assistance to Ankara to receive refugees, the return to Turkey of all illegal immigrants who arrived in Greece from Turkish territory, and the reception by the EU of legal Syrian migrants from Turkey on a one-by-one basis.
Omer Celik, spokesman for the ruling Turkish Justice and Development Party, said earlier that Turkey remains committed to its migration policy, but it is no longer able to restrain the flow of refugees from Syria. After that, the neighboring countries of Turkey announced increased control at the border.