UN warns EU refugee plan may break law

The UN refugee agency said on Tuesday that the European Union’s “quick fix” deal to send back refugees en masse to Turkey would contravene their right to protection under European and international law.

European Union leaders welcomed Turkey’s offer on Monday to take back all migrants who cross into Europe from its soil and agreed in principle to Ankara’s demands for more money, faster EU membership talks and quicker visa-free travel in return.

Vincent Cochetel, Europe regional director of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said that Europe’s commitment to resettle 20,000 refugees over two years, on a voluntary basis, remained “very low”.

“The collective expulsion of foreigners is prohibited under the European Convention of Human Rights,” Cochetel told a news briefing in Geneva.

“An agreement that would be tantamount to a blanket return to a third country is not consistent with European law, not consistent with international law,” he said.

Europe had not even fulfilled its agreement last September to relocate 66,000 refugees from Greece, redistributing only 600 to date within the bloc, Cochetel said earlier.

“What didn’t happen from Greece, will it happen from Turkey? We’ll see, I have some doubts,” he said on Swiss radio RTS...
 [alarabiya.net/Reuters]
8/3/16
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