EU migrant crisis: Prime Minister David Cameron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel make migration warnings ahead of critical EU summit with Turkey
Prime Minister David Cameron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have issued warnings on the scale of migration that can be expected to continue if action is not taken.
Ahead of an EU summit today, Merkel said that Turkey should be praised in what it has done, while Europe has not "covered itself with glory in how, as a union of 28 member states with 500 million citizens, it has struggled with fairly sharing the burden".
The summit comes after a deal was agreed in principle last week, in which the EU will give benefits to Turkey in exchange for the the country taking back all economic migrants reaching the Greek islands in an effort to close off the Balkans route.
Read more: Turkey and EU agree to principles of deal including resettlement policy
In exchange for each Syrian migrant returned, Turkey wants the EU to accept one refugee, as well as incentivise the country by offering extra funding and early access to European visas.
However, European Council President Donald Tusk has warned that there are a "catalogue of issues" in the way of such an agreement.
Turkey's potential EU membership bid has no guarantee of being processed more rapidly. The EU has merely offered further negotiations.
Read more: Did governments let migrants cross borders for labour?
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister is to warn that there could be a renewed wave of north African migrants arriving on the shores of Europe this summer.
Cameron is expected to use the EU summit to urge that attention is also focussed to the north African route as action is taken to make it harder for migrants to cross into Europe in the eastern Mediterranean.