NATO Sends Warships to Try to Keep Refugees Out of Europe

Will Capture Refugee Ships, Force Them to Turkey

Adding to the growing tension between the European Union and Turkey, NATO has announced today that they will send a group of warships to the Aegean Sea to intercept refugees trying to reach Europe and force them instead to land in Turkey.

The EU has repeatedly demanded that Turkey both allow refugees into their country from Syria, and ensure that none of the refugees are able to get further north into European Union member nations like Greece. Turkey has threatened to open the floodgates of refugees if the EU doesn’t offer them more help managing them.

It’s surprising that NATO was able to so quickly get behind this plan, particularly since Turkey is a member nation, and has been objecting to European efforts to make the entire refugee crisis their problem.

This deployment will center on refugees from Syria, but is likely to lead to pushes for more deployments across the Mediterranean to keep African refugees from trying to make the trip by sea to Italy and other southern European nations.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.