So far, 325 irregular migrants arriving to Greece via Turkey after March 20th have been returned to Turkey under the agreement, while 103 Syrian refugees have been resettled directly from Turkey to European Union countries under the “one for one” resettlement scheme.
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“That should make them rethink the flawed EU-Turkey deal”, said the rights campaigner, echoing a similar criticism by many organizations and governments on the deal which allows for the deportation to Turkey of refugees who do not qualify for asylum in Greece.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, along with European Council President Donald Tusk and European Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans, will visit Gaziantep in southern Turkey.
Merkel’s popularity has slipped in Germany as critics accuse her of ceding to Turkish pressure because she needs Ankara’s help in halting the refugee influx, even as Erdogan taken an increasingly aggressive stance toward the press and opposition critics.
Merkel is especially targeted as she decided last week to allow German prosecutors and courts probe into an alleged insult by German satirist Jan Boehmermann against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Immigration commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos said Wednesday that the European Union was in close contact with Turkey for the latter to ensure non-Syrian refugees all the protection they need.
More than a million people reached Europe a year ago, mainly arriving from Turkey to Greek islands in the Aegean. What Angela Merkel really needs to bring back from Turkey are not smiling photos but cast-iron guarantees that the Turkish authorities will stop sending refugees back to their countries of origin and start implementing their asylum laws effectively.
The EU Commission president also acknowledged that the bloc is losing “economic clout” because of the falling European population. If Turkey has met the requirements by then the Commission will propose that it be put on the visa-free list.
He said European Union has dwindling “economic clout” due to its falling share of the global population, in comments which are likely to be seized upon by pro-Brexit campaigners.
Despite insisting that it has an open-door policy for Syrian refugees, Turkey in the past few months has blocked several thousand refugees who were fleeing northern Syria at the border, providing aid to them at displaced persons camps near the border instead.
Only about 10 percent of Turkey’s refugees are sheltered in camps.
He added that “Turkey is not the old Turkey anymore” and said the country could not be easily manipulated.
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The proclamation comes after the European Parliament published a 2015 progress report on Turkey, accusing Erdogan’s government of “backsliding” on its commitment to democracy and the rule of law, and raising concerns over Ankara’s track record on human rights and freedom of the press.
