Turkey-EU deal makes Greece a ‘warehouse of souls’

At an emergency summit that finished on Tuesday, EU and Turkish leaders agreed to take "bold moves" to resolve a crisis that is tearing at the EU, where an initial welcome for migrants fleeing war in Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan - has turned increasingly toward rejection. "Do not come to Europe," the European Council President Donald Tusk warned would-be migrants last week, setting the tone for the tougher EU response. After a week of shuttle diplomacy and 12 hours of talks with Turkey, Tusk said "we have a breakthrough now."But the refugees keep coming, some 142,000 so far this year, using dangerous smuggling routes and boat crossings, primarily to Greece via Turkey, that have cost an estimated 4,200 lives since the beginning of 2015. "The problem is there is too much resistance in Europe at the moment to establish any legal pathway," says Mattia Toaldo, a migration expert at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) in London. "Their idea is that you can simply pull up th e drawbridge and keep everyone in Turkey."Final approval of the tentative Turkey-EU accord is due at a two-day summit that begins March 17. All new migrants that reach the Greek islands will be returned to Turkey, and for every Syrian sent back to Turkey, another Syrian from Turkey will be officially resettled in the EU.Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutolu calls the deal a "game changer." But it is seen as high price from Europeans desperate to resolve the crisis. In exchange, Turkey wants to receive twice the amount of cash - a total of $6.6 billion for three years - that was initially agreed upon to cope with both the influx, and some 2.75 million Syrian refugees it already hosts. Turkey also wants to speed up a liberalised visa regime for its citizens, and its own EU membership process, which has lost steam in recent years amid a host of human rights and other European concerns. "We need to break the link between getting in a boat and getting settlement in Europe," said a statem ent by the 28-nation EU bloc. It also declared that "irregular flows of migrants along the Western Balkans route have now come to an end."The UN criticises what it sees as a mass expulsion of refugees from Greece as contrary to EU values, even as the union faces the largest flows of refugees on the continent since World War II. The EU says the final deal "will respect" both. But Amnesty International said in a statement the same day that the plan is "wrought with moral and legal flaws" and "makes a mockery of the EU's obligation to provide access to asylum at its borders."The charity Doctors Without Borders has also been scathing, saying European leaders have "completely lost track of reality" by backing a resettlement scheme that "reduces people to mere numbers, denying them humane treatment and discarding their right to seek protection." Nato ships have stepped up patrols of the Turkish and Greek coastlines. On Wednesday Macedonia sealed its border - which has been more months a k ey gateway of the Balkans route. Slovenia and Bulgaria also tightened restrictions in recent days.And yet refugees are also adept at finding new routes to Europe when old ones close down or fences are put up. Bulgaria - hardly a top destination compared with Germany, Austria, or Sweden - put up a razor wire fence and is now extending its 20-mile length by another 80 miles to block migrants. Still, 30,000 refugees got through last year. The EU agreed last June to settle 20,000 Syrian refugees over the next two years. That was the peak rate of daily new arrivals last year, and it is just a fraction of those fleeing war and who are on the road.Critics also say the deal gives Turkey and refugees alike little reason to stop illegal immigration, since higher numbers mean more will eventually be settled in Europe. As borders close, more than 30,000 migrants have become stuck in Greece. Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has said Greece will not become a "warehouse of souls." The EU statement vo ws to "stand by Greece" and "do our utmost to help manage the situation."The Christian Science Monitor

Source: Turkey-EU deal makes Greece a 'warehouse of souls'