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Rights group urges EU to reconsider Turkey refugee deal

Saturday, 23 April 2016 9:51 AM [ Last Update: Saturday, 23 April 2016 9:48 AM ]

Women and children wait for food distribution at a makeshift camp for refuges in Idomeni, Greece, April 5, 2016. ©AFP

Human Rights Watch has called on German Chancellor Angela Merkel and European Union leaders to reconsider a recent contentious refugee deal between Turkey and the 28-nation bloc.

The call came ahead of a visit later on Saturday by Merkel, European Council President Donald Tusk and European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans to a refugee camp in Turkey’s southern city of Gaziantep near the Syrian border.

Judith Sunderland, Human Right Watch acting director, said the EU leaders should also visit a detention center for those “abusively deported from Greece,” adding that such a move “should make them rethink the flawed EU-Turkey deal.”

Instead of touring a “sanitized” refugee camp, the EU officials should focus on thousands of Syrians blocked at the border, Sunderland added.

Last month, Turkey and the EU sealed a controversial deal intended to stem the flow of refugees from Syria and other troubled countries to Europe in return for financial and political rewards for Ankara.

Under the agreement, the bloc will take in thousands of Syrian refugees directly from Turkey and reward it with money, visa exemption and progress in its EU membership negotiations.

Frontex officials and Greek police stand with refugees, who are to be deported to Turkey, in the port of Mytilene on the Greek island of Lesbos on April 8, 2016. ©AFP

Critics, however, say deporting people without considering their asylum applications violates international law.

‘90k lone kids sought refuge in EU in 2015’

In another development on Friday, Eurostat, the EU’s statistical agency, released figures, showing that the number of unaccompanied minors claiming asylum in the EU more than tripled in 2015.

Nearly 90,000 lone children asked for refuge across the EU’s 28 member states in 2015, compared to 23,160 recorded the previous year, it said.

The figures indicate that an average of 243 asylum claims were registered a day by unaccompanied children.

Europe is facing an unprecedented influx of refugees who are fleeing conflict-ridden zones in Africa and the Middle East, particularly Syria.

Many blame major European powers for the unprecedented exodus, saying their policies have led to a surge in terrorism and war in the violence-hit regions, forcing more people out of their homes.

More than 180,200 refugees have reached Europe via the Mediterranean so far this year, while over 1,230 people died or went missing in their journey to the continent, according to the latest data by the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

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