Wednesday July 28, 2021
Dispute with Greece and the EU
Turkey does not want to take back migrants
The EU and Turkey have signed an agreement on the repatriation of Mediterranean refugees. But Ankara is demanding billions more. Thousands of migrants are therefore stuck on Greek islands. Now it is up to the EU.
Greece has asked the EU Commission to persuade Turkey to take back rejected asylum seekers. In the meantime, there are 1908 migrants on the Greek islands whose asylum applications have been rejected, said the Greek migration minister Notis Mitarakis in a letter to the Brussels authority.
According to the 2016 refugee agreement between Turkey and the EU, Turkey is obliged to take these people back from Greece. However, Ankara put the repatriation on hold in March 2020 and justified the move with the corona pandemic. Turkey has been refusing to cooperate for 17 months, although there have long been corona tests to ensure safety during repatriation, criticized Mitarakis.
Athens had already asked for help from the EU in January. So far, however, nothing has happened. It is expected that the neighboring country will comply with the obligations of the refugee pact – both in taking back rejected asylum seekers and in efforts to prevent illegal crossings.
The EU Commission confirmed receipt of the letter. “The Commission (…) continues to support all efforts to resume repatriations from the Greek islands to Turkey,” said a spokeswoman for the German Press Agency. One knows about the challenges facing Greece. There are currently around 6650 migrants on the Greek islands of the East Aegean.
Turkey is on one of the main transit routes for refugees to Europe. In a 2016 refugee agreement, the EU promised Ankara six billion euros for the 3.7 million Syrian refugees in Turkey. These have now largely been spent or firmly planned, Ankara is demanding more money, as a significant increase in the number of refugees is to be expected due to the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan and the resurgence of the Taliban.
.