German Chancellor Angela Merkel visits Turkey. Getty images/ Guido Bergmann/Bundesregierung. All rights reserved.
Strasbourg, 21 March 2016 - Now
that the EU Turkey deal has been reached, the utmost care should be given to
its implementation in order to dispel a number of serious
concerns that the deal elicits from a human rights perspective.
It is positive that the agreement
contains some legal safeguards, such as the adherence to international and
European laws. This should prevent automatic collective returns and offer an objective
assessment to each individual requesting asylum or international protection.
At the same time, in order for the
deal to effectively comply with human rights law, the EU, Greece and Turkey
have to ensure that additional principles guide its implementation.
First of all the deal and its
legal safeguards should apply not only to Syrians, but to all people reaching
Greece or any other EU country.
Secondly, the EU and its member
states have to provide urgent help to Greece, whose dysfunctional asylum system
has led to violations of migrants’ human rights, in particular as regards
reception conditions and access to asylum. This help should take the form of
financial and human resources, but also that of a strengthened relocation of
refugees within the EU. The current places available are clearly insufficient
and the number of refugees relocated is utterly inadequate.
An additional element is that both
Greece and Turkey limit the use of detention of migrants only to exceptional
cases, because irregular entry and stay in a country is not a crime. Special
attention should be given to particularly vulnerable people, such as children,
pregnant women, and victims of trafficking and torture.
It is also crucial that Turkey
applies legal and procedural safeguards to all migrants –not only Syrians – who
return from Greece. This includes the prohibitions of refoulement and collective returns.
It would be an illusion to
believe that both migrants’ suffering and the pressure on European countries would
disappear thanks to this deal. It is just a patch to plug one of the holes in
the highly dysfunctional approach of European states to migration. Bolder,
long-term measures are needed.
It is urgent to increase legal
and safe opportunities for refugees to seek protection in Europe, such as more resettlement
opportunities – not only from Turkey – and eased humanitarian visas and family
reunification rules. To this end, the UNHCR conference in Geneva at the end of
March is an opportunity which should be seized.
Moreover, laws that ensure a
humane approach to the needs of migrants should replace provisions that
criminalise those who enter and remain by irregular means. EU search-and-rescue
operations in the Mediterranean should also be strengthened.
Finally, political leaders and
opinion makers should confront public anxiety about migration and asylum from a
principled standpoint. They should lead the way by adhering to human rights
standards and the moral principles of tolerance, acceptance and solidarity which
define Europe.
Protecting refugees is both a
moral and a legal obligation. It is not an easy task, but nor is it impossible.
The EU-Turkey agreement may be part of the solution but European countries must
do more to protect those who flee wars and persecution.
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