The Daily Journalist.
Brusels has reached an agreement with Ankara desperate to stem the flow of refugees to Europe. The problem is that this agreement leaves many doubts about its legality, on its development and about the true intentions of the signatories.
De facto, the text represents a return to the situation a year ago, which were not yet ‘refugees’ but ‘illegal immigrants’. What has been the international reaction to this agreement? United Nations, through its refugee agency (UNHCR) has been “disturbed”.
“Collective expulsion is prohibited by the European Convention on Human Rights, and an agreement seems that establishes the direct expulsion of aliens to a third country is not compatible with European law and with international humanitarian law,” said the European official of UNHCR.
Amnesty International, meanwhile, described as “inhuman” the text signed by Brussels and Ankara and has “moral and legal defects.” And added: “The leaders of the EU and Turkey incur” haggling section of the rights and dignity of some of the most vulnerable people in the world “Doctors Without Borders, an NGO involved in the rescue of refugees in the Aegean says. “European leaders have lost all sense of reality and the agreement being negotiated between the EU and Turkey is one of the clearest examples of their cynicism.”
What laws breach?
The most controversial part of the agreement (point D) is the one that shipped the massive return of refugees from the EU to Turkey. De facto, it will prevent these people apply for asylum in Europe. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states: “In case of persecution, everyone has the right to seek asylum, and to enjoy it, in other countries.”
In Europe, this treaty, this right is restricted. Neither the Status of Refugees of the Geneva Convention, which prevents the mass deportations, as enshrined in this agreement is respected. The European Convention on Human Rights is trodden down in Articles 3, 13 and Protocol IV. The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU, Article 9 speaks of the “obligation to register all applications for international protection present”.
That is, with this text, Europe will no longer register these requests and will skip their own asylum laws. Turkey Will you keep your part? Turkey, which is home to 2.7 million Syrians, has not so far been a state too preoccupied to fight mafias. Its coast, base of well-organized criminal groups, is the scene of daily human trafficking on a large scale with impunity to the Greek islands.
Until Europe did not start talking money, nobody moved in Ankara, despite the visible evidence of that huge business on the streets of Bodrum or Izmir, with clothing stores to which they ‘grew’ lifejackets showcases, with traffickers always around to Iraqi or Syrian families.
But 3,000 billion pledged last fall were not enough for the Turkish coast guard that would end human trafficking. Until NATO has been deployed in the Aegean facing no opposition from the Turks. Now the compromise reached 6,000 million euros.
The problem is that the mafias are still leaving more benefits with the crossing, to date, more than one million people to Europe, about 1,200 euros per refugee. A round business that seems no one wants to give up. Why is not spoken in the text of “refugees” and other “irregular immigrants”? In this issue its back to square one.
European ministers took months to use the word ‘refugee’ instead of ‘immigrant’. At this point, it is not necessary to remember that the refugees are fleeing war, violence or persecution. That is, 88% of people who have come to Europe since last spring, according to UNHCR.
The use of the word ‘refugee’ by Merkel infected the rest of their European counterparts, back in September, so reluctant to pronounce it. This text signed with Ankara returns to the previous word. Perhaps because it is easier to expel ‘immigrants’, while the ‘refugees’ have rights in this agreement are not guaranteed. Donald Tusk himself has tweeted a message: “The days of illegal immigration in Europe are done.”
But were not refugees?
No, not anymore. Does the resettlement program proposed text to be effective? This compromise between Brussels and Ankara stated that each person returned to Turkish soil, Turkey will send another to the EU to be relocated in one of its member countries.
Already some countries have refused this possibility, but it also should be recalled that plan refugee resettlement has failed inaction of the European partners: only 349 people from Italy and 536 from Greece of a total of 160,000 have been resettled in Europe. Continue to defend this system, and tested and buried is at best unrealistic.
Can this agreement alleviate the problem?
Hardly. The text does not put the focus on resolving conflicts that cause these great waves of refugees. In addition outsources to Turkey, actor Syrian conflict, refugee management and monitoring of the Aegean. There is talk of mafias as if they were these criminal groups which cause the flight of these people rather than the conflicts themselves.
Traffickers are seeking new routes and to circumvent European controls and continue to do business facing no opposition from the Turkish authorities. The mafias have won just over Aegean 1,200,000,000 euros a year takind advantage of the refugee crisis.
