The EU offering visa-free access to millions of Turkish citizens is like "storing gasoline next to the fire", a former MI6 chief has said.

Sir Richard Dearlove said that while "shutting the door on migration is not an option", he raised concerns about the EU approving visa-free travel for Turkish people inside Europe's passport-free Schengen area.

"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." Sir Richard Dearlove, speaking to the BBC

The visa deal was in return for Turkey agreeing to take back migrants who crossed the Aegean Sea to Greece.

Refugees at the Nizip Refugee Camp in southern Turkey Credit: PA

Sir Richard also said the number of immigrants coming into Europe over the next five years could run into the millions.

Last year 1.6 million migrants arrived in Europe. Sir Richard added that once they were in the EU, the new arrivals would have freedom of movement across the 28 member countries.

1.6m 1.6 million migrants arrived in Europe last year

The social and political impact of the new arrivals is giving rise to right-wing populist parties across Europe, as voters feel that there is a failure to control immigration he continued.

"If a politician like Marine Le Pen of the Front National can command the support of one in four, perhaps even one in three, French voters this does represent a sea change in the Continent's politics." Sir Richard Dearlove

The migration crisis is "more serious" than that following World War II because it is "global in nature" he added, and said that its impact is "eating away at the willingness of EU states to act together".

He said that this is rendering the EU "impotent in the face of the most serious social and humanitarian problem" it has had to face, and that this may mean it has outlived its role.