Despite numerous violations of international law on behalf of the EU, Greece, and Turkey, a massive forced return of refugees from Greece to Turkey is about to begin.
When Turkey gets the refugees, it will either send them back to Syria or back to the EU. For this Turkey gets billions in aid.
The refugees are not exactly happy. Riots and stabbings are on the increase.
The Financial Times reports EU Prepares to Expel Thousands of Refugees from Greece.
The EU is moving forward with plans to begin expelling thousands of refugees from Greece from Monday despite objections that the scheme violates international law.
The UN’s refugee agency said on Friday there were “serious gaps” in the EU’s plan, which would require nearly all refugees who have arrived in Greece in the last two weeks to be sent back to Turkey, arguing that a system to give legitimate asylum seekers protection was not yet in place.
Even before the migration crisis, Greece’s asylum system was cited by EU courts for “inhuman” and “degrading” conditions, and European authorities have been attempting to create a process that is legally acceptable virtually from scratch. In addition, Amnesty International on Friday presented new evidence Turkey is repatriating Syrian refugees in direct violation of international law.
The UN said conditions in Greece’s processing centres on its outermost islands were “deteriorating”, noting that some of the camps had seen rioting and stabbings in the past week as migrants become more panicked about their future course.
The EU’s case was further weakened by the Amnesty report which said it had uncovered evidence that Turkish authorities were engaged in “large-scale forced returns of refugees” to Syria — which would be a violation of international law and, as a result, make Greek returns to Turkey illegal.
The report found that “groups of around 100 Syrian men, women and children” have been sent back to the war-torn country “on a near-daily basis” for the past two months, with “large-scale” returns from the southern Hatay province this week.
“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,” said John Dalhuisen, Amnesty’s head of Europe and central Asian operations.
Natasha Bertaud, the EU Commission’s migration spokeswoman, said Brussels had received assurances from Ankara that it would pass new laws by Monday making such returns, known internationally as refoulement, illegal.
This is what happens when you foolishly welcome people with open arms, then cannot figure out how to deal with the inevitable flood of refugees.
The process will make a lot of angry people. How many of them will become radicalized?
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
