Immigration security

Ex spy-boss: Turkey access to European Union visa-free travel ‘explosive’

The candid assessment by the M16 former head Sir Richard Dearlove came as a European Commission report also revealed the visa deal would make terrorist attacks more likely than any time before with terrorist and criminals to flood applications for passports.

Under a deal that has sparked uproar across Europe, the EU Parliament has offered Turkey and its 75 million citizens visa-free access to the continent and its 28 nations if it agrees to hold back the tide of refugees tying to cross into Europe.

Sir Richard said the idea was extraordinary and would create greater upheaval than that already created by the arrival of the 1.6 million refugees arriving in Europe last year alone.

“For the EU however to offer visa free access to 75 million Turks to stem the flow of migrants across the Aegean seems perverse, like storing gasoline next to the fire one is trying to extinguish,” he said.