GETTY The visa-free deal could release 1.5million Turks into Europe or millions of migrants

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Diplomatic cables between the Government and the British mission in Ankara also suggest that EU mandarins are trying to keep any visa deal with Turkey secret until after the referendum. The Government is set to follow in the footsteps of an EU deal with Turkey on visa-free travel within the borderless Schengen zone, according to the documents

GETTY Turkey will release 'millions' of migrants from camps if it does not get EU visa-free travel

This would mean that up to 1.5million Turks with “special passports” will be handed visa-free travel to the UK. Janet Douglas, the deputy head of mission in the Turkish capital, wrote in the documents: “Visa travel [to the UK] for Turkish special passport holders… would be a risk, but a significant and symbolic gesture to Turkey.” She also warned that failure to secure an EU visa-free travel deal could lead Ankara to “open the floodgates” to migrants currently held in Turkish refugee camps.

The wires also revealed that Brussels chiefs are trying to “avoid major escalation of tensions” with Turkey “before the end of June” so the issue could be kept “under control”. This has led furious critics to claim that David Cameron is trying to keep the deal under wraps before the 23 June EU vote. Former Work and Pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith accused the Prime Minister of “an appalling deceit” of the British public over the deal.

13 pictures that will make you STOP and THINK Sun, February 5, 2017 Shocking pictures show the true devastation caused from the migrant crisis. Play slideshow REUTERS 1 of 13 A Turkish gendarmerie carries Aylan Kurdi's body after he drowned in a failed attempt to sail to the Greek island of Kos