EU Turkey Deal
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EU- Turkey deal is scheduled to come into effect this Sunday to avoid a last ditch efforts by refugees to reach Greece. While I applaud measures saving life in the Aegean I have serious ethical concerns on the content of the treaty. First, Greece is expected to process all the refugees arriving on its shores. While the Greek state is still dealing with austerity measures, it would require an army of asylum process officers and refugee center personal to take care of the influx. Even before the austerity measures were implemented, the Greek state was not exactly known for its correct processing of asylum requests. This is demonstrated by the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights on the 1999 case of Belgium vs. Greece on resettling refuges under Dublin II procedures. Until a few months ago, Greece was still processing refugees request on pen and paper until the EU provided technology that is more modern. Additionally, it took the Greek government several months to get refuges centers up and running, even with EU help. How is the Greek state going to afford the costs and what measure of European support can be expected? Second, the EU has agreed to take in an additional 72,000 Syrian refugees. So far, I have not seen any mention of refugees of Iraqi or Afghan origin. Additionally, the amount of refugees under this deal is small compared to the amount of refugees already finding shelter, in often inhumane conditions, in the region. In absolute numbers, the real refugee crisis takes place in northern Iraq, in Lebanon and in Turkey itself, where 2.7 million Syrian refugees are staying. Thirdly, the EU-Turkey deal foresees in the legal settlement of refugees all over the EU. A lot has been debated on spreading refugees over the EU countries the last year. So far, only a few hundreds refugees have been relocated under the EU plan to spread refugees. Several Central European states, like Poland, Slovakia and Hungary, have expressed a desire for a very strict vetting process before being willing to accommodate refugees. If intra-European solidarity cannot be achieved refugees will reamin stuck in either Greece or Turkey. Lastly, Turkey does not acknowledge the Geneva Convention to its full extend. Only those fleeing from Europe to Turkey can be given full
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My thoughts on the EU-Turkey refugee crisis deal
Transcript of EU Turkey Deal
EU- Turkey deal is scheduled to come into effect this Sunday to avoid a last ditch efforts by refugees to reach Greece. While I applaud measures saving life in the Aegean I have serious ethical concerns on the content of the treaty.
First, Greece is expected to process all the refugees arriving on its shores. While the Greek state is still dealing with austerity measures, it would require an army of asylum process officers and refugee center personal to take care of the influx. Even before the austerity measures were implemented, the Greek state was not exactly known for its correct processing of asylum requests. This is demonstrated by the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights on the 1999 case of Belgium vs. Greece on resettling refuges under Dublin II procedures. Until a few months ago, Greece was still processing refugees request on pen and paper until the EU provided technology that is more modern. Additionally, it took the Greek government several months to get refuges centers up and running, even with EU help. How is the Greek state going to afford the costs and what measure of European support can be expected?
Second, the EU has agreed to take in an additional 72,000 Syrian refugees. So far, I have not seen any mention of refugees of Iraqi or Afghan origin. Additionally, the amount of refugees under this deal is small compared to the amount of refugees already finding shelter, in often inhumane conditions, in the region. In absolute numbers, the real refugee crisis takes place in northern Iraq, in Lebanon and in Turkey itself, where 2.7 million Syrian refugees are staying.
Thirdly, the EU-Turkey deal foresees in the legal settlement of refugees all over the EU. A lot has been debated on spreading refugees over the EU countries the last year. So far, only a few hundreds refugees have been relocated under the EU plan to spread refugees. Several Central European states, like Poland, Slovakia and Hungary, have expressed a desire for a very strict vetting process before being willing to accommodate refugees. If intra-European solidarity cannot be achieved refugees will reamin stuck in either Greece or Turkey.
Lastly, Turkey does not acknowledge the Geneva Convention to its full extend. Only those fleeing from Europe to Turkey can be given full refugee status. How does this relate to the future life prospects of asylum seekers in Turkey and their place in Turkish society? Does this mean that if the EU will expel refugees to Turkey it will breach articles 3, 31, 32, 33 of the Convention? Once again the 1999 case of Belgium vs. Greece can serve as an example.
To sum it up. The EU-Turkey deal means that a political bloc will spread refugees over its territory, although it failed to do so in the last year, while a member state of this bloc will have the responsibility to process most of the refugees, although it failed to do so the last 10 years. Moreover, this political bloc prides which itself on human right issues and finds it necessary to hand over 3-6 billion euros and open accession talks with a partner who only recently demonstrated a lack of European values.
Do we really have become so cynical, pragmatic and scared that we are willing to accept a deal that seems to violate some of those core principles on which our society is built?
