It was announced that The European Commission is to imply an idea to grant Turkish citizens visa-free travel facility to Europe. After a last minute complication, the responsible commission is to announce on May 4th that Turkey has vastly attained the benchmarks set for the visa liberalization.
As per International Business Times, the commission will have the European Parliament and EU governments to approve the legislation by the end of June. The EU gave the proposal of 72 criteria to be accomplished by Turkey be the deadline on Wednesday, which is to include passport security, management of migration, public order, human rights and readmission of irregular migrants. Turkey has attained most of the criteria, though not all.
It was noted by BBC that the final decision on the Turks being able to travel visa-free by June's end will highly rely on the 28 country leaders that are members of the EU. On March 18, the deal made with Turkey by EU became the turning point in the refugee crisis, and will decrease the number of alleged refugees coming into Europe.
According to Telegraph, the EU is at risk if the deal does not go and push through with the visa liberalization. An EU diplomat was quoted, "The feeling of lack of trust on the visa [liberalization] and on the camps [for refugees] is widespread. No one believes in it but we cannot say it openly because there is no alternative." In the same manner, a Turkish government official claimed, "This is a great opportunity for Europe to show it is a reliable partner and make it clear that they don't apply double standards when it comes to predominantly Muslim European nations such as Turkey."
As the laws further permit visa-free travel, refugees are said to be the most affected in the turn. Supposedly, the government believes that it will inflict balance to the system, both in travel and in security.
