EU migrant deal in 5 questions: How would it actually work?

Finally, a “breakthrough” in Europe’s migrant crisis. At least, that’s how German Chancellor Angela Merkel described a new proposal outlined in Brussels, Belgium, on Monday.

After 12 hours of talks between European Union leaders and Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, a deal was drawn up – and you’d be forgiven if it takes a moment for it to fully sink in.

Under the “one in, one out” proposal: For every Syrian refugee returned to Turkey from Greece, a Syrian refugee in Turkey would be resettled in the EU.

In turn, the EU would lift its visa requirements for Turkish citizens by the end of June 2016.

It would also speed up the payment of 3 billion euros ($3.3 billion) to Turkey to help it deal with the refugee crisis, with potentially billions more on the table. The country, which borders both Syria and Europe, is already host to 2.6 million migrants.

At this stage, it’s still just a proposal that will be considered at the next European Council migration crisis meeting on March 17-18.

But how would it actually work in practice? CNN Senior International Correspondent Nic Robertson talks us through five key questions about the plan.

A woman cries after being rescued in the Mediterranean Sea about 15 miles north of Sabratha, Libya, on July 25, 2017. More than 6,600 migrants and refugees entered Europe by sea in January 2018, according to the UN migration agency, and more than 240 people died on the Mediterranean Sea during that month.

Refugees and migrants get off a fishing boat at the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean Sea from Turkey in October 2015.

Migrants step over dead bodies while being rescued in the Mediterranean Sea, off the coast of Libya in October 2016. Agence France-Presse photographer Aris Messinis was on a Spanish rescue boat that encountered several crowded migrant boats. Messinis said the rescuers counted 29 dead bodies -- 10 men and 19 women, all between 20 and 30 years old. "I've (seen) in my career a lot of death," he said. "I cover war zones, conflict and everything. I see a lot of death and suffering, but this is something different. Completely different."

Authorities stand near the body of 2-year-old Alan Kurdi on the shore of Bodrum, Turkey, in September 2015. Alan, his brother and their mother drowned while fleeing Syria. This photo was shared around the world, often with a Turkish hashtag that means "Flotsam of Humanity."

Migrants board a train at Keleti station in Budapest, Hungary, after the station was reopened in September 2015.

Children cry as migrants in Greece try to break through a police cordon to cross into Macedonia in August 2015. Thousands of migrants -- most of them fleeing Syria's bitter conflict -- were stranded in a no-man's land on the border.

The Kusadasi Ilgun, a sunken 20-foot boat, lies in waters off the Greek island of Samos in November 2016.

Migrants bathe outside near a makeshift shelter in an abandoned warehouse in Subotica, Serbia, in January 2017.

A police officer in Calais, France, tries to prevent migrants from heading for the Channel Tunnel to England in June 2015.

A migrant walks past a burning shack in the southern part of the "Jungle" migrant camp in Calais, France, in March 2016. Part of the camp was being demolished -- and the inhabitants relocated -- in response to unsanitary conditions at the site.

Migrants stumble as they cross a river north of Idomeni, Greece, attempting to reach Macedonia on a route that would bypass the border-control fence in March 2016.

In September 2015, an excavator dumps life vests that were previously used by migrants on the Greek island of Lesbos.

The Turkish coast guard helps refugees near Aydin, Turkey, after their boat toppled en route to Greece in January 2016.

A woman sits with children around a fire at the northern Greek border point of Idomeni in March 2016.

A column of migrants moves along a path between farm fields in Rigonce, Slovenia, in October 2015.

A ship crowded with migrants flips onto its side in May 2016 as an Italian navy ship approaches off the coast of Libya. Passengers had rushed to the port side, a shift in weight that proved too much. Five people died and more than 500 were rescued.

Refugees break through a barbed-wire fence on the Greece-Macedonia border in February 2016, as tensions boiled over regarding new travel restrictions into Europe.

Policemen try to disperse hundreds of migrants by spraying them with fire extinguishers during a registration procedure in Kos, Greece, in August 2015.

A member of the humanitarian organization Sea-Watch holds a migrant baby who drowned following the capsizing of a boat off Libya in May 2016.

A migrant in Gevgelija, Macedonia, tries to sneak onto a train bound for Serbia in August 2015.

Migrants, most of them from Eritrea, jump into the Mediterranean from a crowded wooden boat during a rescue operation about 13 miles north of Sabratha, Libya, in August 2016.

Refugees rescued off the Libyan coast get their first sight of Sardinia as they sail in the Mediterranean Sea toward Cagliari, Italy, in September 2015.

Local residents and rescue workers help migrants from the sea after a boat carrying them sank off the island of Rhodes, Greece, in April 2015.

Investigators in Burgenland, Austria, inspect an abandoned truck that contained the bodies of refugees who died of suffocation in August 2015. The 71 victims -- most likely fleeing war-ravaged Syria -- were 60 men, eight women and three children.

Syrian refugees sleep on the floor of a train car taking them from Macedonia to the Serbian border in August 2015. How to help the ongoing migrant crisis

Europe's migration crisis in 25 photos

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Will this stop people from hopping onto boats to Greece?

Nic Robertson: That’s the EU’s intent, but it’s still not clear if that will be the case. People fleeing fighting in Syria will continue to try to find a safe place to live. Experience over the past summer has taught us that even when routes have been closed down, refugees continue to find other ways.

If Turkey does join the EU, won’t this just create a flood of more migrants?

NR: In theory, no. If Turkey joins the EU, under current agreements, the “Dublin Accord” would come into effect. This accord requires countries in which migrants first land to process their asylum application.

But of course, this is just in theory. Many migrants are on their way somewhere else – for example France or the UK – and don’t necessarily register until they arrive at the country they’re really trying to reach.

Is it even legal to send migrants back to Turkey?

CESME, TURKEY - DECEMBER 04: An Afghan refugee family walk with their belongings and lifejackets to a campsite to wait for a boat to leave Turkey at a launching point in the coastal town of Cesme on December 4, 2015 in Cesme, Turkey. The flow of boats from Turkey has slowed after a 3bn euro deal was struck between the EU and Turkey, to slow the flow of migrants and refugees to Europe. Since the deal was struck on November 29th, Turkish police have rounded up approximately 1300 migrants and arrested a number of smugglers. The winter weather and increased police checkpoints on the roads leading to launch points have slowed the amount of boats leaving turkish shores. (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)

Related article EU and Turkey agree on refugee crisis proposal

NR: Amnesty International questions the legality of this. The humanitarian organization says the plan has moral and legal flaws, is dangerous and dehumanizing.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees is also concerned about the return process, saying it doesn’t address the protection of refugees, in keeping with international obligations.

What is the EU is offering Turkey to sweeten the deal?

NR: There’s Turkey’s possible accession to the EU, and billions in funding to deal with the crisis.

But perhaps the most flavorsome sweetener for the Turks is getting the issue of a safe area inside Syria, for Syrians to live in, onto the EU agenda.

Turkey’s desire for a safe zone is something it’s been wanting to get onto the International agenda for the last few years. And so far, no one has committed troops on the ground, which is what it could be seeking.

What does this mean for refugees on the EU border now?

NR: We don’t know, and the EU doesn’t know. But it potentially leaves a lot of people in limbo, including those on the western Balkan route and on the Greek-Macedonian border.

Read more: Thousands of refugees stuck on Greece-Macedonia border as new rules take hold

A final thought

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Related video Clashes break amid Calais camp relocation

NR: For me, the real question is “how are they going to enforce this?” Let’s say you’ve got a family – mother, father, children – living in a tent in Greece and they say “we’re not leaving.” Who is going to remove them? The police? The military? Frontex, the EU’s border agency?

And where are you going to put all these families? What food and facilities are in place? So in terms of the treatment of these people, many dangers and pitfalls haven’t been addressed in these limited statements.