The European Union has remained on good terms with the Erdoğan regime despite many instances of raised tensions, but it has come to light that the union is in the red with the refugee deal struck with Ankara. The deal foresaw Turkey sending one refugee to EU for every refugee returned while crossing over illegally to Greece, but Turkey has sent over 5 refugees for every refugee to date.

The European Union had struck a deal with Turkey on March 20, 2016 to reduce the number of refugees migrating to Europe. According to this deal, the refugees whose claims for asylum were rejected would be returned to Turkey from Greece, and in return EU countries would accept one legal refugee for every refugee they returned. 

So, Turkey was to receive the refugees who crossed into Greece via illegal means, and send Syrian refugees legally. But the most recent EU Commission report states that only 1210 refugees were returned to Turkey since the date the deal was signed.

In the same period of time, the Turkish state sent 6254 Syrian refugees to the EU. These refugees were placed in various EU countries. According to the EU Commission report, Germany received 2270 of  these refugees. EU authorities are pressuring both Greece and Turkey to make up for the disparity, and to accelerate the return procedures.

Turkey was to receive material compensation with the refugee deal, and the full accession talks were to accelerate. But in almost all high-tension situations with Europe, Turkish authorities threatened the EU with “ending the deal and opening the gates”. 

Turkey has received 6.6 billion Euros from Brussels since March 2016 as part of the refugee deal. Turkey received another 3.3 million Euros from 2014 to 2016 from the EU budget as a candidate country.