'"For now, things are working and we hope they can work increasingly better. In this way, it would be a positive example to tell the EU to also wake up on the central Mediterranean… Last year thousands of people travelled from Turkey to Greece through the Aegean sea, now dozens," Gentiloni was quoted as saying by the media outlet.
The minister reportedly said that the agreement helped to improve conditions for migrants in Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon.
In mid-March, Brussels and Ankara agreed on a deal, under which Turkey pledged to take back all undocumented migrants who arrive in the European Union through its territory in exchange for Syrian refugees accommodated in Turkey, on a one-for-one basis. In return, the European Union pledged to provide over $3 billion to Turkey to help it deal with refugees, with a possible further 3-billion provision in 2018.
