EU strikes deal with Turkey to send back refugees

 Refugees arrive on a dinghy on the Greek island of Lesbos, after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey. Photograph: Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP/Getty Images

The EU has struck a deal with Turkey that would mean all refugees and migrants arriving in Europe from Sunday being sent back across the Aegean Sea.

The European council president, Donald Tusk, cleared key sticking points with the Turkish prime minister, Ahmet Davutoğlu, during talks on Friday morning. “The Turkey agreement has been approved,” Finland’s prime minister, Juha Sipilä, said on Twitter.

The agreement means that all refugees and migrants arriving in Greece from Sunday can expect to be returned to Turkey. The accord, which is expected to be formally signed off later on Friday, represents a climbdown by Turkey, which had been pushing to restart EU membership talks in five areas.

In return for taking back refugees, Turkey can expect “re-energised” talks on its EU membership, with the promise of negotiations on one policy area to be opened before July. The EU has also agreed to speed up the disbursement of €3bn (£2.3bn) intended to help Syrian refugees in Turkey, with new projects to be agreed this week.

Turkey has promised that all returned people will be treated in line with international law, including guarantees that they will not be returned to the countries they have fled from.

The controversial one-for-one deal remains intact: for every Syrian refugee the EU sends back across the Aegean, a Syrian in Turkey will be given a new home in Europe.

But the number of Syrians who can be rehoused in Europe from Turkey has been capped at 72,000, far short of the 108,000 a year recommended by international aid agencies, if the EU is to do its fair share. The EU’s relocation scheme will be stopped once more than 72,000 people have been settled in Europe, amid concerns among some EU members of an open-ended commitment.

Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, earlier criticised Europe’s “shameful” record on refugees, as the two sides struggled to reach a deal aimed at stemming the flow of people to Greece.

About 45,000 people are trapped in Greece, including 14,000 who are living insqualid conditions near the Greek-Macedonian border at Idomeni, as they are barred from travelling onwards to central and northern Europe.