The EU’s executive Commission, which provided MSF with around 15 million euros previous year, said that the organization had not asked for European funding for projects in Turkey so no work there would be affected.
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The medical aid charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) says it will no longer take funds from the European Union in protest at its migration policy.
The hard-hitting statement pressed home anger over the EU-Turkey deal, as well as the actions against refugees by some member states, and urged European nations rethink their “dangerous” attitudes towards refugees.
The spokesman stressed also that the UNHCR has shared recommendations with Greek authorities to address existing gaps on registration, asylum and reception of refugees.
The number of migrants – many from war-torn Syria – to Europe is at its highest level since World War Two. For every Syrian migrant returned to Turkey, the EU has agreed to directly settle a Syrian refugee in a European country.
Turkey was also offered visa-free access, increased aid and speeded up European Union accession talks if it met certain conditions including changes to Ankara’s anti-terrorism laws.
Under the EU-Turkey deal to ease the refugee crisis, which saw more than 850,000 people cross from Turkey to the EU past year, EU leaders agreed to cut visa requirements for Turkish citizens and accelerate Turkey’s EU membership bid.
This item has been corrected to say the first group of Syrian refugees flew to Rome in April, not May.
Last week the European Commission said it hoped to xerox this deal for 16 countries in Africa and the Middle East, including Somalia, Eritrea, Sudan and Afghanistan – countries many refugees are fleeing. Likewise, the deal does nothing to encourage countries surrounding Syria, already hosting millions of refugees, to open their borders to those in need.
“Deterrence policies sold to the public as humanitarian solutions have only exacerbated the suffering of people in need”, said Oberreit.
“This is really about Europe’s refugee shame”, Oberreit said, adding: “The main focus of the response [to refugees] in Europe has been to stop people from coming”.
The EU-Turkey deal’s financial package includes one billion euros in humanitarian aid.
“Europe’s attempt to outsource migration control is having a domino effect, with closed borders stretching all the way back to Syria”.
She said: “We have taken this decision to distance ourselves from governments and institutions whose policies put our patients in danger or are in direct contradiction with humanitarian principles”. It can not become the norm and must be challenged.
The organisation receives 90% of its overall funding from private sources, not governments.
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Unlike some other global agencies, MSF does not rely primarily on major statutory grants for much of its work: 92% of its work is privately funded by 5.7 million individual supporters. It also received €6.8 million from Norway, which is not part of the EU.
