European Commission: EU-Turkey Readmission Agreement signed

Date: 
Monday, December 23, 2013

 The EU and Turkey have signed a Readmission agreement in exchange for opening talks on visa liberalisation for Turkish citizens travelling to Europe. For the latter, the European Commission has published ‘A roadmap towards a visa-free regime with Turkey’ which lists the requirements which should be fulfilled by Turkey, including managing borders in a manner that effectively prevents irregular migration to Europe. The main objective of the Readmission agreement is to establish procedures which allow both parties to return foreign nationals who have irregularly entered and/or reside in their territories. Turkey will be required to take asylum seekers whose applications have been rejected in a Member State and had previously transited Turkey to enter EU territory. The agreement also sets out an accelerated return procedure whereby third country nationals apprehended at the border region can be quickly returned to Turkey.

The agreement will be sent to the Council of the EU, the European Parliament, and the Turkish Grand National Assembly for ratification, and its implementation will begin three years after the ratification.

Read the full Readmission agreementand the press releaseof the European Commission.


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