EU Looks to Refugee-Laden Turkey to Ease Its Migrant Burden

European Union leaders will look to persuade Turkey’s prime minister at a summit on Monday to slow the flow of migrants traveling to Europe and take back thousands who do not qualify for asylum.

Turkey's Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu (R) and European Council President Donald Tusk at a joint press conference in Ankara, Turkey, on March 3, 2016. Tusk says it is up to Turkey to decide what further measures it can take to reduce the flow of migrants but says many in Europe favor a mechanism that would allow the “fast and large-scale” shipment of migrants back to Turkey and such a mechanism would “effectively break the business model of the smugglers. AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici

BRUSSELS—European Union leaders will look to persuade Turkey’s prime minister at a summit on Monday to slow the flow of migrants traveling to Europe and take back thousands who do not qualify for asylum.

Ankara is central to easing Europe’s refugee pressures. More than 2,000 people arrive daily from Turkey to Greece, where many have been stranded as countries on the main migrant route through the Balkans are aiming to stop them moving north.

The number of illegal entries from Turkey to Greece remains far too high.

— Donald Tusk, president, EU Council