Financial Times commentator Gideon Rachman suggests that Europe should offer the writing-off Greek debt in exchange for establishing refugee camps within the country.

It is time to think creatively about how Greek debt and migration into Europe could be linked into a diplomatic package that helps to fix both problems, he writes.

Rachman adds:

The broad outlines of the deal would be simple. Greece agrees to seal its northern border with EU help, stopping the flow of migrants into northern Europe. In return, Germany agrees to a massive writedown of Greek debt, as well as immediate financial aid to cope with the current crisis. Refugees arriving in Greece are then housed in EU-run camps on Greek islands in the expectation that they will return to Syria (or wherever else they are fleeing) once peace is restored.

The FT commentator concedes that "on first consideration, any notion of bottling up refugees in Greece sounds chilling".

He argues however that the deal could "be very attractive" for Greece.

If the Greeks were seen to be doing the Germans a massive favour by stemming the flow of refugees, it would become much easier for Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, to make the case for debt relief for Greece to her voters. And once the Germans moved, the rest of Greece’s creditors could be expected to fall in line.

Rachman acknowledges that there is a danger that the war will drag on and on, and that “temporary” refugee centres would become permanent — as has happened with Palestinian refugee camps.

He adds:

But if, in a couple of years’ time, there is still little prospect of Syrians returning home, the status of those living in EU refugee camps could be rethought. At least that reassessment would be carried out in an orderly and thoughtful way, rather than in the current atmosphere of chaos.

Source: Financial Times

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