What a self-deluding arrogance. The EU is apparently losing patience with Greece as “overcrowded refugee camps that turn violent” and Athens do not keep the terms of the EU Turkey deal to send refugees back to Turkey.
Citing parts of the EU Commission progress report on Refugee Crisis in Greece, Reuters writes among others:
“Seven months after the European Union and Turkey struck an agreement to turn back the tide of Syrians fleeing west, not a single refugee has been sent back from Greece, and Brussels is losing its patience as overcrowded camps grow violent. […]
Under the deal, the European Union declared Turkey “a safe third country”, meaning those who make the crossing can be returned there, even if found to have fled Syria or other countries as refugees deserving protection. Turkey agreed to take them back, in return for a range of EU concessions.
But for the deal to continue to work for the longer term, European officials and experts say refugees will have to be sent back to Turkey. As long as those crossing are still able to stay in Greece, there is a risk that more will decide to come.”
The EU blames the delays on Greek inefficiency.
“The goal of ensuring returns … has mostly been hampered by the slow pace of processing of asylum applications at first instance by the Greek Asylum Service and of processing of appeals by the newly-established Greek Appeals Authority,” the EU Commission said in a progress report.
“Further efforts are urgently needed by the Greek administration to build a substantially increased and sustained capacity to return arriving migrants, which is considered to be the key deterrent factor for irregular migrants and smugglers.”
Athens says it is simply overwhelmed and cannot speed up the painstaking process of evaluating claims. It has asked the EU to send more staff, but European officials say that would not help without more effort from Greece to improve its system.
Interviews with asylum-seekers and officials involved in the process suggest Greek staff are indeed stretched, but red tape, inefficiency, the lack of a unified plan across refugee camps and a lengthy appeals process are also to blame.
Some Data as posted on the Reuters report:
Only 17,000 people, around half of them Syrians, have made the hazardous sea crossing from Turkey since the deal was signed, a tiny fraction of hundreds of thousands that arrived the previous year to pass through Greece.
Only about 700 people who arrived since the deal was signed – just four percent of the total – have gone back to Turkey, and none was ordered back after being recognized as a refugee.
Of those who returned, most were economic migrants from countries like Pakistan and Bangladesh who left without seeking asylum in Greece. Around 70 people who did claim asylum in Greece gave up on the process and asked to leave before it was over. The rest are still in Greece, prey for smugglers who offer to take them to northern Europe.
Some 61,000 migrants are still scattered across Greece, including 15,900 in overcrowded island camps that have grown violent as the delays mount, with around 2,500 more arriving each month. The camps are now holding three times as many people as they held when the deal was signed, and twice as many as they were built for.
Migrants, refugees all in one bag, in the same bag with ‘cruel bureaucracy’, shortage of ‘interpreters’ and ‘asylum experts’ and ‘overcrowded camps’ and lots of ‘inefficient Greeks’, but I read no word about the EU Commission funds allocated to NGOs and the UNHCR, neither do I see a sentence mentioning the xenophobic EU-member-states stubbornly refusing to take refugees from Greece AND Italy in their countries.
But for the deal to continue to work for the longer term, European officials and experts say refugees will have to be sent back to Turkey. As long as those crossing are still able to stay in Greece, there is a risk that more will decide to come.
Neither do I read a tiny mention about the clash between EU and Turkey over the visa-free promise that is hardly to materialize thus threatening to bring to collapse the EU Turkey Deal.
Excerpts from the Reuters report via Business Insider
PS same EU criticism as usual, main thing Brussels does not admit its own failure.
