Prime Minister Joseph Muscat today said he believes that the possible EU -Turkey migration deal is effectively a pushback.

EU Leaders will meet in Brussels next week to discuss the ratification of a deal requiring Turkey to take back migrants who reach the EU illegally in exchange for €6bn. It has also been said that for each illegal migrant sent to Turkey, the EU would accept a Syrian refugee who has already been processed and is in Turkey.

Prime Minister Muscat spoke of two lines of thought in the European Council, some believe what is being offered to Turkey is too generous, and will not lead anywhere, while others say its not ideal but that this needs to occur.

“For Malta, we believe this is better than nothing and it is not the be all and end all. There is a clear issue regarding the need for a legal framework. This is effectively a pushback. One will have a situation where people would have arrived in a n EU country and technically they would have the right to file for asylum or protection, and now we would send them back to Turkey”.

“The first reaction was that Greece considers Turkey a safe country, and this is not an EU wide recognition. We are awaiting the Council’s legal services to say whether the EU's actions are according to international laws, given that the United Nations have already flagged that there could be a possible problem”.

He said that rumours of the one for one exchange, where if EU sends one person to Turkey and Turkey would send the EU one who has already been processed, would be capped.

“In a best case scenario, refugees will not pass from Turkey to Greece, but would they begin crossing from elsewhere? Will we do something similar with Egypt for example? Eventually they might go through Libya? Are we ready to have the same approach with others?”

“Prime Minister Cameron agrees that if we have such an agreement with one country we should have it with others”.

On Libya, he said that if a government is formed, then it must be set in Tripoli. He said that there are those who keep refusing any kind of agreement and that they should possibly see sanctions made against them personally.

He was speaking with the press right before holding a bilateral meeting with the incoming Commonwealth Secretary General Baroness Patricia Scotland.