Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr. 5
By Elena Kosolapova - Trend:
The EU- Turkey deal designed to halt the uncontrolled influx of refugees to the EU is in danger, Paul Levin, director at Stockholm University Institute for Turkish Studies believes.
"The deal is in danger, in part due to the lack of planning and commitment from the EU to help Greek authorities to manage the large number of asylum requests," Levin told Trend in an email.
Under the EU-Turkish deal, signed last month, migrants arriving illegally in Greece are expected to be sent back to Turkey if they do not apply for asylum or if their claim is rejected. In exchange, the EU agreed to resettle up to 72,000 Syrian refugees under the so-called "one-for-one plan" directly from Turkey and speed up financial aid to help Turkey care for the Syrian refugees it is hosting.
The first boats carrying migrants, mainly from Pakistan, were deported from Greece to Turkey on April 5. Turkey has agreed to accept up to 500 migrants per day.
Levin noted that the EU will need to step up considerably in order to improve implementation of the deal with Turkey in weeks ahead because since for all its flaws, the realistic alternatives to this deal are all much worse.
"If it can be made to work, the EU-Turkey deal has the potential to limit the number of refugees who risk their lives trying to cross the Aegean Sea, and to offer them a safe passage to Europe instead," the expert noted.
To insure the deal's work, the airlifting of Syrian refugees from Turkey to the EU needs to begin immediately, and the additional voluntary commitments in the deal - whereby individual EU member states agree to take many more than the 72,000 Syrians mentioned in the deal - are essential, the expert said.
Europe is facing its biggest refugee crisis since the Second World War, according to the UN assessment.
Levin noted that the migrant crisis will only end when people in Syria and neighboring countries no longer find a need to flee so a multi pronged approach is needed, which includes stepped up efforts to end the conflict in Syria.
Speaking about deportation of illegal migrants to Turkey the expert said that recent allegations by international human rights organization Amnesty International about large-scale illegal returns of refugees to Syria by Turkish authorities are very worrying.
Amnesty last week accused the Turkish army of turning back thousands of Syrians trying to flee their country in the last few months, sometimes using force.
"Such practices, if confirmed, would make it difficult to consider Turkey a "safe third country" and hence to send refugees from Greece back to Turkey," Levin said.
The expert believes that the EU needs to put pressure on Turkey to immediately halt any violations of the non-refoulement principle and ensure proper rights also for the non-Syrian asylum seekers it will take from Greece.
Speaking about the visa-free travel to the EU countries for Turkish citizens envisaged by the EU-Turkey deal since June, Levin noted that escalation in Turkey's south-eastern region could make it difficult to implement.
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