The Ankara agreement

On the 20th of March 2016 the European Union reached an agreement with Turkey for the closure of the Balkan route, which in 2015 had been crossed by over 850 thousand migrants. In exchange for 6 billion euros, Ankara accepted to readmit on its territories all foreign citizens who had entered Europe from its coasts and who are not qualified to obtain asylum. The effects of the agreement were immediate: the arrivals, which had reached peak amounts of 5,000 persons per day, dropped to almost zero starting from the day after the agreement had been signed.

The downfall of illegal arrivals

Source: Unhcr