Sir, – Your editorial is correct that the flow of refugees from Syria was cut by a 2015 EU-Turkey agreement which promised €6 billion, "to provide refuge, schools and healthcare" ("The Irish Times view on EU-Turkey tensions: refugees caught in the middle", March 4th).
But half the money was spent on a 911km border wall between Turkey and Syria, the second-longest structure in the world after the Great Wall of China.
The wall comprises seven-ton concrete blocks, two metres wide and three metres high, topped with one metre of razor wire.
Electronic features include, close-up surveillance systems, thermal cameras, land surveillance radar, remote-controlled weapons systems, command-and-control centres, line-length imaging systems and seismic and acoustic sensors.
:fill(white):background_color(white)/static.themebuilder.aws.arc.pub/irishtimes/1647534191476.png)
The wall, completed in 2018, together with new barriers along Syria’s borders with Lebanon and Jordan, effectively ended the mass exodus of refugees fleeing Syria’s civil war.
Turkey’s ministry for EU affairs argues that without the €3 billion wall, a further 1.5 million migrants would have arrived in the EU since 2017. – Yours, etc,
Dr JOHN DOHERTY,
Vienna.