At a news conference in the early hours of this morning, President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker said the re-admission of Syrian refugees to Turkey would be considered legal since Turkey is regarded by the EU as a safe third country.
While a final agreement remained out of reach, elements of what is being proposed would be ground-breaking, and highly controversial.
Turkey said it will accept the wholesale readmission of thousands of migrants once they landed on Greek islands or were picked up by vessels patrolling the Aegean Sea.
These would not just be economic migrants, or non-Syrians.
Under the agreement Syrian refugees, who had decided to pay smugglers to get to Europe, would also be liable to be sent back to Turkey on the basis that they could have sought asylum there in the first place.
President of the European Council Donald Tusk said this would decisively end what he called irregular migration, and break the business model of smugglers.
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said that for every Syrian sent back to Turkey, another in Turkey would be resettled in Europe, but in a legal way.
- In other words, those who chose the smuggling route would be at the bottom of the pile, while those who stayed in Turkey could take their chances on resettlement to a number of EU member states.
"With this game-changing position in fact our objective is to discourage illegal migration, to prevent human smugglers, to help people who want to come to Europe through encouraging legal migration in a disciplined and regular manner," he told a news conference after the summit.
Mr Tusk insisted the plan would be legal, but it will almost certainly be challenged in the European Court of Human Rights.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister David Cameron among others hailed the Turkish proposal as a potential break through in Europe's politically toxic migration crisis.
More than a million people fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and beyond have flooded into the EU since early 2015, most making the perilous sea crossing from Turkey to Greece, then heading north through the Balkans to Germany.
Source: AFP/Reuters - rte.ie
8/3/16
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German media and politicians struck a cautious note about a draft deal between the EU and Turkey aimed at stemming the flow of migrants to Europe, with many wary of Turkish demands for billions more in cash and faster EU membership talks...
ReplyDeleteThe 28 EU leaders welcomed an offer by Ankara to take back all migrants who cross into Europe from its soil and agreed in principle to its other demands but delayed a deal until March 17-18 pending more work by officials..
Chancellor Angela Merkel, facing the first test of her open-door refugee policy in regional elections on Sunday, is under pressure from voters and Bavarian coalition partners to slow the influx of migrants. In Brussels, she described the plans, if implemented, as a breakthrough.
However, even her Christian Democrat (CDU) ally Volker Kauder, head of the conservative parliamentary group, struck a cautious tone, describing the outcome of the summit as a "very important interim step" on ARD television.
Reflecting broad scepticism in the Bavarian conservative camp, CSU lawmaker Hans-Peter Friedrich said it was unclear if a good deal would be struck in coming weeks and he had "mixed feelings" about Ankara's plans, warning Europe must not be blackmailed.
"We mustn't put ourselves in the hands of the Turks," he told SWR radio....REUTERS
The UN has expressed concern over a radical EU-Turkey plan to ease the migrant crisis, saying it could contravene international law...
ReplyDeleteUnder the plan, all migrants arriving in Greece from Turkey would be returned and for each Syrian sent back, a Syrian in Turkey would be resettled in the EU.
The UN's refugee agency said any collective expulsion of foreigners was "not consistent with European law".
Amnesty International called the plan a death blow to the right to seek asylum...BBC