David Cameron: EU deal with Turkey will not mean more migrants coming to UK

Britain will not be taking any extra migrants as a result of a deal being struck between the European Union and Turkey, Prime Minister David Cameron has said.

Mr Cameron was speaking as he arrived at a summit in Brussels at which it is hoped to finalise an agreement drawn up with Turkey two weeks ago to stem the flow of migrants across the eastern Mediterranean.

The Prime Minister said that reaching a deal which would allow migrants to be returned from Greek islands to Turkey would represent "good progress".

Under the terms of the proposed deal, the European Union would take one Syrian refugee from camps in Turkey for every migrant returned to the country. Ankara stands to gain 6 billion euros (£4.7bn) in aid as well as visa-free travel for its nationals.

But Mr Cameron said that provisions on the visas and refugee resettlement would not apply to Britain because it is not part of the EU's Schengen border-free area.

"Because we have kept our own border controls, because we are out of Schengen, we won't be offering visa-free access to Turks as part of this agreement," he said.

"We maintain our own immigration policy.

"We have already said what we are going to do in terms of taking Syrian refugees to Britain and that is under way. We won't be taking more because of what is discussed here today.

"If we can get an agreement that returns the migrants from the Greek islands to Turkey that would be good progress."