The EU’s in-principle deal with Turkey ” a legally complex and unclear agreement essentially outsourcing Europe’s refugee woes ” remains a concern for many.
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Rights groups and others immediately raised questions over the pact, asking whether it violated global norms that call for asylum claims to be heard before possible deportation.
“European leaders have completely lost track of reality, and the deal now being negotiated between the EU and Turkey is one of the clearest examples of their cynicism”, said Aurelie Ponthieu, humanitarian affairs adviser on displacement for the Medecins Sans Frontiers medical aid organization. As the Syrian Civil War has continued, refugees have become fed up with their limited legal status, which restricts their ability to work and travel freely.
Although details are still being hashed out, the current terms threaten to exacerbate an already abysmal situation for refugees in Turkey and could potentially violate Europe’s own laws for dealing with asylum seekers, they said.
While the routes are tricky to monitor, and movements can change quickly from day to day, the EU’s border agency Frontex said its personnel have not spotted big shifts yet.
Slovenia said it would still accept some migrants “on a case by case basis on humanitarian grounds” and allow those seeking asylum in the alpine country, a statement from the interior ministry said.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who pushed for the accord to assuage anxious voters before regional elections on Sunday, said things were finally moving in the right direction after almost a million Syrians, Iraqis, Afghans and others flooded into Germany alone previous year. These people could be stranded by the new border restrictions.
The number of migrants in Greece has abruptly risen in the last 48 hours, a government official said on Thursday (March 10) as shiploads continue to arrive from Turkey.
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu (center) poses with EU leaders during a summit in Brussels, March 7, 2016, as the European bloc looks to Ankara to help it curb the influx of refugees flowing into the continent.
“If we do not manage to reach a deal with Turkey, then Greece can not bear the weight (of migrants) for long”, she said, urging a “decision that is right for all 28” European Union member states.
Despite the border closure and increasingly poor conditions, dozens of new arrivals were walking the more than 15 kilometres from a nearby gas station, men, women and children using flimsy colored ponchos to ward off the worst of the rain and humidity to reach Europe’s largest refugee bottleneck. Last year, more than a million people entered the European Union illegally by boat, mainly going from Turkey to Greece.
Slovenia said on Tuesday it would place new border restrictions on the entry of migrants, effectively blocking the way of those trying to reach western Europe through the Balkans.
What’s in the EU-Turkey proposal?
Merkel wants a comprehensive European deal with Turkey to stop asylum seekers from jumping on unseaworthy rubber boats to get to Europe.
Turkish and Greek prime ministers said on Tuesday that they are determined to prevent illegal traffickers and migration in the Aegean Sea bordering the two countries.
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“An agreement that would be tantamount to a blanket return of any foreigners to a third country is not consistent with European law, is not consistent with worldwide law”.
