NATO to consider request to help Turkey with refugee flow to Greece
NATO's 28 defense ministers will consider, this week, a request to help Turkey track down human traffickers along its border with Greece. The request is not without concerns from Greece, and other member states.
With no end in sight to the refugee flow into Europe, Turkey and Germany have agreed to ask NATO for help in securing the Turkish-Greek border – a request NATO says it will take “very seriously.”
The aim is combat human traffickers who continue cramming desperate refugees onto rickety boats, which all too often sink at sea.
NATO will take up the issue Wednesday and Thursday during a two-day meeting of the alliance's defense ministers in Brussels, according to Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
"We will take very seriously the request from Turkey and other allies to look into what NATO can do to help them cope and deal with the crisis and all the challenges they face, not least in Turkey, " Stoltenberg told a news conference.
He stressed that no decisions had been made on how to proceed but, he said, "I expect the ministers to discuss the request from Turkey and then agree on how we can follow up."
