European Commissioners Cecilia Malmström (L) and Stefan Füle (R) shake hands with Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu in Brussels on Dec. 4.
9 December 2013 /DENİZ ARSLAN, ANKARA
Bağış said that in the next three years Turkey will get funding from the EU to install thermal cameras along its borders, open a center staffed with language experts to determine illegal immigrants' countries of origin and build a detention center for illegal immigrants.
Turkey and the EU announced last week that talks on allowing Turkish citizens to travel in Europe without visas would start in mid-December in Ankara. Turkey is also expected to sign a readmission agreement that would require the repatriation of third-country nationals illegally migrating to Europe via Turkey back to Turkey with the EU.
An expert on EU law, Özcan stressed that the visa exemption agreement is an international agreement and needs to be ratified in each member country's parliament.
“According to deal, we will prepare ourselves for the next three years and secure our borders, build facilities for illegal immigrants. After three years, through the readmission agreement, we will start dealing with third-country illegal immigrants. Then, in a reasonable time, like 6 months to a year, we would like to see the visa exemption,” Gümrükçü said.
