Turkey not 'a concentration camp' says PM Davutoglu

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Monday said his country was "not a concentration camp" and would not host migrants permanently to appease the European Union [EU], which wants Turkey to stop the flow of people to Europe.

"We cannot accept an understanding like 'give us the money and they stay in Turkey'. Turkey is not a concentration camp," Davutoglu said in a live television interview a day after meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on the migrant crisis.

Late last week, Merkel said Europe had no chance of overcoming its biggest refugee crisis without cooperation with Turkey and called for a crackdown on human smuggling off its coast.

"We cannot organise or stem the refugee movements without working with Turkey," she said.

The EU and Turkey struck a deal on an action plan aimed at stemming the massive influx of migrants into the bloc, last week Thursday.

But on Friday, Turkish Foreign Minister Feridun Sinirlioglu slammed the EU offer of financial help as unacceptable, saying an action plan agreed in Brussels was "a draft and not final."

The final offer had to be more than the "insignificant and meaningless amount that they proposed before," Sinirlioglu said.

He refused to provide any exact amount Ankara required but said: "If [the EU] delivers 3 billion euros [$3.4 bn] in the initial phase, it would be meaningful."

"We have spent $8 billion [on refugees] and our gross national product is around $800 billion. Their [GNP] is $18 trillion.

"Three billion euro versus $18 trillion [GNP] is comic but it is much better than the $500 million that they had delivered."

Turkey is the main departure point for the more than 600,000 migrants who have entered Europe this year, most of them making the short but dangerous sea crossing to the Greek islands, but some also coming by land.