202 people returned to Turkey as deportations begin from Greece, EU says all left voluntarily
Greece has today deported the first boatload of migrants under the controversial EU agreement with Turkey, BBC News reported.
According to BBC News, Greek authorities said 202 people were returned to Turkey, with 130 of those from Pakistan, 42 from Afghanistan and others from Iran, Sri Lanka and Morocco, as well as several other countries.
The Guardian reported that EU authorities said none of those deported today had requested asylum in Greece and all had left voluntarily.
However, the Guardian noted that Greece’s top asylum official admitted last week that the country would require a 20-fold increase in personnel to cope with the extra burden of asylum claims. Some 2,300 legal experts, asylum practitioners and translators from the EU have been promised but are still yet to arrive.
Writing on Europe's World today, Heaven Crawley of Coventry University's Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations called the revelation that 42 Afghans had been deported "shocking".
She said there are far too few people processing applications for asylum in Greece, with the current system said to be at breaking point with "insufferable pressure" being put on a limited number of caseworkers.
The European Commission today published a factsheet on the EU-Turkey Agreement here.
The agreement took effect as of 20 March 2016, with today being the first day for returns of people arriving in Greece. The factsheet says the aim of the agreement is "to replace disorganised, chaotic, irregular and dangerous migratory flows by organised, safe and legal pathways to Europe for those entitled to international protection in line with EU and international law."
The European Commission says that under the agreement:
1) All new irregular migrants whether persons not applying for asylum or asylum seekers whose applications have been declared inadmissible crossing from Turkey to the Greek islands as of 20 March 2016 will be returned to Turkey;
2) For every Syrian being returned to Turkey from the Greek islands, another Syrian will be resettled to the EU from Turkey directly;
3) Turkey will take any necessary measures to prevent new sea or land routes for irregular migration opening from Turkey to the EU;
4) Once irregular crossings between Turkey and the EU are ending or have been substantially reduced, a Voluntary Humanitarian Admission Scheme will be activated;
5) The fulfilment of the visa liberalisation roadmap will be accelerated with a view to lifting the visa requirements for Turkish citizens at the latest by the end of June 2016. Turkey will take all the necessary steps to fulfil the remaining requirements;
6) The EU will, in close cooperation with Turkey, further speed up the disbursement of the initially allocated €3 billion under the Facility for Refugees in Turkey. Once these resources are about to be used in full, the EU will mobilise additional funding for the Facility up to an additional €3 billion to the end of 2018;
7) The EU and Turkey welcomed the ongoing work on the upgrading of the Customs Union.
8) The accession process will be re-energised, with Chapter 33 to be opened during the Dutch Presidency of the Council of the European Union and preparatory work on the opening of other chapters to continue at an accelerated pace;
9) The EU and Turkey will work to improve humanitarian conditions inside Syria.
Amnesty International criticised the EU's deal with Turkey, saying it dealt a historic blow to human rights.
John Dalhuisen, Amnesty International's Director for Europe and Central Asia, said on Friday: "In their desperation to seal their borders, EU leaders have wilfully ignored the simplest of facts: Turkey is not a safe country for Syrian refugees and is getting less safe by the day."
Asylum Aid's Zoe Gardner wrote on the Another Europe Is Possible website today that the aim of the agreement was simply "to put the suffering of refugees out of sight of Europeans, rather than to actively alleviate it through a well funded resettlement programme."
Calling for the agreement to be scrapped, Garnder said it "does nothing to address the real problems that face people when they do get to Europe. And, let us be clear, they will still get to Europe. Until the EU members start to cooperate through investing in well-managed and dignified conditions in-which to receive refugee, this crisis will continue."