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Non-Syrians denied asylum claims under EU-Turkey deal - MEPs
Source: The Guardian
Non-Syrians denied asylum claims under EU-Turkey deal - MEPs
Patrick Kingsley Migration correspondent
Tuesday 10 May 2016 12.50 BST
Hundreds of non-Syrian asylum seekers deported under the EU-Turkey migration deal were not allowed to claim asylum in either Greece or Turkey, a group of European politicians has claimed.
After interviewing 40 of the deportees, the three MEPs have concluded that, despite EU promises, the deal with Turkey is not being enacted according to international law.
“All refugees interviewed told us they were not given the opportunity to ask for asylum, neither in Greece nor in Turkey,” Cornelia Ernst, Marina Albiol and Josu Juaristi said in a report released to journalists after they visited two detention centres in northern Turkey. “All said they did not know what will happen to them, and had received no information since they had arrived in Turkey.”
The trio are the first independent observers to corroborate the UN refugee agency’s earlier claims that some of the refugees were sent back to Turkey by mistake. Throughout 2015, hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers were allowed to land in Greece by boat from Turkey, and then move onwards to northern Europe. This stopped in March, after the EU agreed a deal with Turkey to send back new arrivals.
More than 300 have since been returned – the majority to the two camps visited by the MEPs, and around a dozen Syrians to a third camp in southern Turkey. Those Syrians told the Guardian by phone that they had returned willingly to Turkey, but had since been denied legal representation and were being held indefinitely.
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Patrick Kingsley Migration correspondent
Tuesday 10 May 2016 12.50 BST
Hundreds of non-Syrian asylum seekers deported under the EU-Turkey migration deal were not allowed to claim asylum in either Greece or Turkey, a group of European politicians has claimed.
After interviewing 40 of the deportees, the three MEPs have concluded that, despite EU promises, the deal with Turkey is not being enacted according to international law.
“All refugees interviewed told us they were not given the opportunity to ask for asylum, neither in Greece nor in Turkey,” Cornelia Ernst, Marina Albiol and Josu Juaristi said in a report released to journalists after they visited two detention centres in northern Turkey. “All said they did not know what will happen to them, and had received no information since they had arrived in Turkey.”
The trio are the first independent observers to corroborate the UN refugee agency’s earlier claims that some of the refugees were sent back to Turkey by mistake. Throughout 2015, hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers were allowed to land in Greece by boat from Turkey, and then move onwards to northern Europe. This stopped in March, after the EU agreed a deal with Turkey to send back new arrivals.
More than 300 have since been returned – the majority to the two camps visited by the MEPs, and around a dozen Syrians to a third camp in southern Turkey. Those Syrians told the Guardian by phone that they had returned willingly to Turkey, but had since been denied legal representation and were being held indefinitely.
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Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/10/non-syrians-denied-asylum-claims-under-eu-turkey-deal-meps
